June 9, 2009 - Hexagon Metrology announced TESAStar-sm 80 and TESAStar-sm 60 motorized CMM probe heads for Brown & Sharpe Global Coordinate Measuring Machines. These deliver a motorized CMM probe head with 2,952 different positions via 5 degree increments. The probes deliver -180 to +180 degrees of revolution, and +90 to -116 degrees of pitch, with high speed indexing. The sm-80 and sm-65 add the benefits of in-quill mounting, which allows part of the probe’s mechanism to slide within the quill, increasing the effective Z-axis measuring range. The TESAStar-sm 65 is designed to overcome one of the greatest disadvantages of motorized probe heads on smaller bridge CMMs: the loss of measuring volume due to the size of the head.
The TESAStar-SM 65 is a quill mounted option for CMMs with smaller cross-section (65mm) quills, and delivers 16.2 mm more Z axis volume than the shank-mounted version. This is a small CMM motorized head option that was previously unavailable from any manufacturer.On the Brown & Sharpe Global 555/575, the TESASTAR-sm 65 offers an extended Z-axis measuring range of 52.9 mm more than other probe head alternatives due to its compact design and unique assymetrical A-axis.
This is an increase of 10% in the Z-axis measuring range. When comparing a TESASTAR-sm 65 equipped Global CMM with a 500mm Z size to other manufacturer’s machine offerings with 400mm Z, the difference in available measuring height is even more significant—30% greater than a 400mm size machine. The TESASTAR-sm 80 for larger bridge machines is 16.4 mm shorter than the TESASTAR-m. This also represents an increase in measuring volume over the shank-mounted option.
The probe is designed for use on larger CMMs with an 80 mm Z-axis quill cross section. Due to its compact design and unique assymetrical A-axis, the TESASTAR-sm 80 delivers a Z-axis measuring range that is 7.6 mm greater than comparable quill mounted heads. There are also two probe connection options available on each version, totaling 4 options for the new TESASTAR-sm series: 1) a standard M8 threaded mount for touch probes such as the TESASTAR-mp, 2) a TKJ multiwire connection for analog scanning probes such as the LSP-X1, 3) advanced probe heads such as the ScanShark laser line probe, and 4) the CMM-V video probe—all available on the Brown & Sharpe Global.