TESASTAR

March 12010 – Hexagon Metrology Inc. announced the immediate availability of new versions of the TESASTAR-m and TESASTAR-sm motorized probe heads for Brown & Sharpe and Sheffield branded coordinate measuring machines shipped from the North Kingstown, R.I., factory. These new variants of the popular motorized probe heads offer a 7.5 degree indexing increment for maximum compatibility with legacy products.

The new TESASTAR-m and TESASTAR-sm versions deliver -180 to +180 degrees of revolution, and 0 to 105 degrees of pitch for a total of 720 indexable positions. The TESASTAR-sm has the added benefit of an "in the quill" mount, thus increasing the effective measuring range along the CMM's Z-axis. With equivalent positioning compatibility with other legacy products on the market, the new probes also offer a distinct advantage by offering indexing speeds up to twice as fast.

As with the original 5 degree increment TESASTAR motorized probe heads, all are available in both M8 and TESA Kinematic Joint (TKJ) versions. The M8 versions provide a mechanical interface suitable for connection to standard M8 touch-trigger probes like the TESASTAR-mp. The TKJ versions are for contact and noncontact scanning probes like the LSP-X1, ScanShark laser line probe and CMM-V and -Ve video probes. Furthermore, the new probe heads are fully compatible with existing TESASTAR-e and TESASTAR-ae probe head controllers, TESASTAR probe extensions, and the TESASTAR-r probe rack.