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I just got me a Renishaw Equator

thunderskunk

Cast Iron
Joined
Nov 13, 2018
Location
Middle-of-nowhere
I’ve been told the best defense is a good offense. My market has thoroughly dried up during this COVID mess. My prodding into new markets for 5-axis machining has revitalized my requirement for automated metrology; namely my pet project 40 year old CMM isn’t going to cut it.

This week I’m picking up a Renishaw Equator 300, used, but good condition. I’m really excited to play with this thing. I have partners that can not only measure master parts, but it sounds like I can translate DMIS text files to MODUS programs. And hell, the thing scans!

If anyone is curious about something with the equator let me know. I’m going to be playing with this thing a lot over the next few months.
 
So if I grok this machine, it compares rather than measures - you must always have some exemplar part to start with. That would let it do inspect-every-part production things, but it does not seem that it can qualify a first article.

[Though I suppose you use things like gage blocks as masters for some tasks.]

Be interesting to see how this works out, and in what sorts of work flows.
 
So if I grok this machine, it compares rather than measures - you must always have some exemplar part to start with. That would let it do inspect-every-part production things, but it does not seem that it can qualify a first article.

[Though I suppose you use things like gage blocks as masters for some tasks.]

Be interesting to see how this works out, and in what sorts of work flows.

It can be used as a conventional dcc cmm too, just software.
 
It can be used as a conventional dcc cmm too, just software.

I’ve talked at length with the Verisurf folks. They can error map it to .0005” which... isn’t all that impressive in my humble opinion. While they said it’s usually a bit better, it’s not guaranteed, and that’s not exactly encouraging.

Last I checked, the Renishaw’s organic comparator is precise to .002mm (.000079”) with a scale resolution of .0002mm (.0000079”).

So .00008/.0005=16%. I’m not really sure about the right way to compare precision, but that’s a big leap. It’s still a CMM in all respects that it measures coordinates, but my guess is the mechanism and frame can’t handle holding positions like it’s bigger siblings, making the comparator function necessary.

Another note: it’s not necessary to have a “golden master,” meaning you can use a scrap part so long as the absolute measurement is known. I do wonder how that would hold up in an AS9100 audit.
 
Sorry to say that unit is a huge POS. My old company was going to purchase a unit for each machining line but ran into tons of issues with the units.

If memory is right the model has to be sent over to another company to generate the measurement model then a golden standard needs to be machined to check against. Was far from user friendly when it came time to update the model due to a design changes. In the end we scrapped purchasing any more and bought CMM's instead.
 
I’ve talked at length with the Verisurf folks. They can error map it to .0005” which... isn’t all that impressive in my humble opinion. While they said it’s usually a bit better, it’s not guaranteed, and that’s not exactly encouraging.

Last I checked, the Renishaw’s organic comparator is precise to .002mm (.000079”) with a scale resolution of .0002mm (.0000079”).

So .00008/.0005=16%. I’m not really sure about the right way to compare precision, but that’s a big leap. It’s still a CMM in all respects that it measures coordinates, but my guess is the mechanism and frame can’t handle holding positions like it’s bigger siblings, making the comparator function necessary.

Another note: it’s not necessary to have a “golden master,” meaning you can use a scrap part so long as the absolute measurement is known. I do wonder how that would hold up in an AS9100 audit.

Yeah, I'm surprised but I don't doubt anything you said. I have no first hand experience with these.

The reason it seems strange to me is that conventional wisdom states that inverse kinematic hexapod platforms are more precise than linear orthogonal platforms due to volumetric error being divided between six linear axis as opposed to three. Maybe like you say the frame is just not stiff enough.
 
Sorry to say that unit is a huge POS. My old company was going to purchase a unit for each machining line but ran into tons of issues with the units.

If memory is right the model has to be sent over to another company to generate the measurement model then a golden standard needs to be machined to check against. Was far from user friendly when it came time to update the model due to a design changes. In the end we scrapped purchasing any more and bought CMM's instead.

For a minute I thought you were the fella selling the unit I’m buying; similar story.

I don’t blame you: it doesn’t sound like it’s capable of replacing a CMM, and I’ll probably have to spend a ridiculous about of time learning to modify programs, but I don’t think it’s impossible. I guess we’ll find out.
 
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It has a home now. Still fartin around with it.
 
Any update now that you've had a few months to play with the new toy :)?

I took it to “bring your Renishaw equator to work” day for some process capability studies. Renishaw guys have been pretty cool about it; got me what I needed for updates and even offered to preview a new controller for it. I’m impressed so far, but my bottleneck is getting our met lab to produce calibration files and PC-DMIS time. I’ve got some tooling I want to use it for, and it’s pretty complex geometry. We’ll see how it works. I’ve got a guy who has tons of experience with equators and Hexagon, which is super helpful.

The job at my own shop dried up and I didn’t have time to bootstrap it, so this is a happy medium to keep it running and learn on it. Even then, there’s still never enough time.
 








 
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