ALTERAC is equally at home in an inspection department or on the shop floor, especially as pneumatic mounts isolate the CMM well from nearby sources of low frequency vibration such as large machinery. The CMM control may be either stand-alone or integrated into the machine base with a keyboard on an arm at the side, giving the customer a choice that best suits the installation site. The latter option also facilitates relocation of the equipment once installed. The inclusion of Renishaw encoders with 0.05 ?m resolution optical scales for high volumetric accuracy not only leads to outstanding metrology but also provides immunity to the ingress of contaminants.
Measurements taken with a touch-trigger probe at a series of points, ideal for acquiring information on dimensional accuracy, is increasingly being augmented by continuous-contact probing (analogue scanning) and laser scanning to allow high speed collection of data on complex freeform surfaces. ALTERAC measuring machines can deploy all three types of sensor. Such flexible data acquisition boosts measurement throughput to avoid bottlenecks in the metrology department, provides a comprehensive awareness of component conformance, and meets today's manufacturers' requirement for a CMM that underpins concurrent engineering practices to speed time to market for new products.
The CMM structure has been optimized using computer aided solid modelling and finite element analysis, particularly within the bridge section, and is finely tuned to maximize stiffness, reduce vibration and provide smoothness of axis motion, all of which are fundamental to delivering high accuracy measurements.
