Westec 2010 Advance Release Renishaw Booth No. 1909
The QC20-W ballbar is an all-new design featuring a Renishaw-developed linear sensor and Bluetooth® wireless technology.
This provides greater ease of use and enhanced durability, and allows for testing even in "closed door" manufacturing, where access for wiring can raise safety and procedural issues.
The new design also allows testing in 3 orthogonal planes through a single reference point. A single, simple hardware set up means quicker testing and the ability to produce a representative volumetric measurement of positioning accuracy.
The QC20-W ballbar retains the principle of a simple CNC circular program, and powerful software. Together, these can quickly diagnose and quantify machine positioning errors including, servo mismatch, stick-slip errors, backlash, repeatability, scale mismatch and machine geometry as well as giving an overall circularity error value. Heavily revised system software provide even greater options and flexibility for testing and reporting. The QC20-W kit is supplied in a redesigned, robust system case, which includes spaces for the most popular accessories.
Renishaw has gone to great lengths to ensure backward compatibility with the QC10 system, minimizing costs and disruption when upgrading or working alongside existing QC10 systems. Ballbar lengths are identical to QC10, so all existing test routines can be carried over including test templates, CNC programs, and work and test procedures. Only minimal training is required when upgrading, focusing on familiarization with the new features. The Ballbar20 software is also compatible with QC10 systems, enabling both old machine records to be reviewed and old test templates to be utilized.
An upgrade kit is available to QC10 ballbar users at a very competitive price, and many customers are choosing to upgrade rather than pay for the re-calibration of an existing QC10 ballbar.
Determining a machine tool's capabilities before machining and subsequent post-process part inspection can greatly reduce the possibility of scrap and machine downtime; resulting in lower manufacturing costs. Renishaw ballbars are used by machine tool manufacturers, end users, service and maintenance companies and resellers for pre-production tests, predictive maintenance programs, new machine prove-out, machine grading and comparison, and machine checking after "crashes". Many users specify a ballbar test before beginning any new batch of components.
SOURCE: Westec