MarWin 4.5

Mahr Federal Inc. has recently unveiled a major upgrade to the software platform for its surface metrology systems. MarWin 4.5 offers increased functionality and ease of use, a range of new features, and a series of special Option Packages for specific applications. The new MarWin 4.5 platform is available on new systems and as an upgrade to all MarSurf XR, XC, XCR, and XT instruments.

"MarWin was originally designed as a modular platform to provide a 'smart' interface to all types of measurement systems, simplify operator learning on different systems, and allow quick development of custom applications and routines," said Pat Nugent, Vice President, Metrology Systems, for Mahr Federal. "With this newest version, MarWin 4.5 has evolved to provide this broad, universal platform to facilitate the needs of everyone. Everything from simplification of the user interface for quick operation on the shop floor, to open interfaces that allow development of complex new parameters and measurement methodologies for dimensional metrology professionals is available."

Fully compatible with Windows 7, the new MarWin 4.5 platform offers a number of innovative features. An enhanced Measuring Assistant can easily be programmed to automate multi-step measuring runs, including many special functions, such as searching for the highest point on a part. An interactive zoom function allows operators to measure long traversing lengths, then focus in on specific areas of interest for additional evaluation. This can facilitate the search for distinctive deviations, for example, in leak detection.

A Pore Elimination feature also allows the system to suppress profile areas containing recesses, pores or other interruptions not relevant for a specific analysis. Virtual rulers available in MarWin 4.5 allow distances in the X and Z directions to be calculated directly from the measured profile. This can be used to measure coating thickness, for example, by means of step height measurements, or to determine the width and height of wear areas on a surface. And surfaces with short traversing lengths can now be measured more easily with MarWin 4.5, using full, half, or totally without pre- and post-travel cutoff lengths.

The Robust Gaussian filter, per the VDA 2008 standard, is now available in the software. A number of special Option Packages are available with MarWin 4.5. These include packages for Profile processing, Dominant waviness per VDA 2007 and 2007-2, and measurement of Rpq, Rmq and Rvq parameters per ISO 13565-3. Customized user-defined parameters can also be created when company specific evaluations which are not available in international standards are required.

A special Option Package is available that allows data export to qs-STAT via the AQDEF (Advanced Quality Data Exchange Format) interface. This option package has been certified by the Q-DAS company to conform to version 3.01 of the AQDEF standard. MarWin 4.5 licenses are available for all MarWin-based measuring systems, including MarSurf XR, MarSurf XC, MarSurf XCR, and MarSurf XT, from version 2.0 upward.