Coordinate measuring machines with guideways in a single plane

By arranging the guideways in the main measuring directions (x and y) on a common granite base plate, a particularly simple but solid design is achieved (Fig. 38b). Optical measuring tasks are often performed on relatively flat measuring objects. Because the guideways are in a single plane, guideway deviations only have a minor effect on the measurement result. One of the main areas of application for these machines is quality control in manufacturing processes. To keep transport distances short, the machines are often set up directly in production. Major temperature fluctuations and contamination, which occur in this environment, are taken into account in the design.

The features that determine accuracy are made of steel or hard stone, i.e. materials with a similar coefficient of expansion. This minimises the thermally induced deformation of the machine. In the machine imaged as an example in Figure 41, residual temperature effects are further reduced by means of integrated temperature compensation (see Temperature influence, p. 119 ff.). To protect against soiling, all sensitive components such as scales and guideways are encapsulated or covered. When designing the components, emphasis is placed on high load capacity (no deformation due to additional load) and the use of standard components (e.g. profiled rail roller guides) to reduce costs. The basic version of this machine class is equipped with an image processing sensor with zoom optics. In addition, there are the basic illumination types transmitted light, brightfield incident light and darkfield incident light. The system can optionally be supplemented with tactile probe heads. A specially customised compact control unit is integrated into the machine in such a way that the heat input is negligible. To make servicing easier, all machine components are controlled via a standardised connection cable using a CAN bus system.