3D Coordinate Measuring Machine Guide

3D coordinate measuring machine is also called 3D CMM machine, which is a supportive coordinate measuring machine, and is a device that measures the geometry of physical items by sensing discrete points on the surface of the targeted item with a probe. There are many 3D measuring machines and the 3D CMM machines are pretty much the leading options in the market.

CMM Probes

Onto the CMM devices, there are many types of probes which are adopted, including mechanical, optical, laser, and even white light. Based on the machine models, the probe position may be manually controlled by an onsite workers or it may also be program controlled based on the planned programs. In practice, CMMs typically specify a probe's position in terms of the displacement from a reference position in a three dimensional Cartesian coordinate system. The system is with XYZ axes as designed.


Axes Issues

In order to move the probe along the X, Y, and Z axes, many machines also allow the probe angle to be managed to allow measurement of surfaces that would otherwise be unreachable. In the machine tool industry, the 3D measuring machines are widely used to do precision measurement for the work piece as well as other objects, so to achieve the intended accurate processing within standards. CMM is widely used in the machine tool industry, and the deployment of 3D CMM machine in the grinding process is very common.

For the manufacturing industry, grinders are the most fundamental capital goods for manufacturers and play the critical role that determines the final output of the end products. The quality of ground pieces, as this reason, is the key point of the quality of the manufacturers’ end products. The inventory of machine tools varies from time to time. Now after the invention of the machining centers and the programmed controlling system, the standards of machining become more and more rigid compared with the standards two decades ago.


Machine Models and CMM

There are many machine tools that can be coordinated with CMM devices, and besides the CNC machining centers, there are also other models that can be installed with the 3D CMM machines. They may be CNC turning centers, CNC milling machines, CNC tapping and milling centers, CNC drilling and milling centers, etc. Those machines are also very strong in machining all kinds of work pieces with complicated procedures. The coordination may not be always built-in but many kinds of integration.

Machining centers, either vertical or horizontal, are powerful in all kinds of heavy cuttings especially if the machining centers are designed with double column structure. Therefore, as the era of Industry 4.0 comes in the 21st century, all kinds of machine tools are evolving towards more versatile in the market. With the 3D CMM machine, the machining accuracy of these machining centers would be improved. The stable working quality and high repeatability are both crucial.


Measuring the Grinding

Besides the common milling based processing, grinding is also a type of cutting that needs CMM to perform during processing if high precision is needed. For grinding machines such as external grinding and internal grinding machines, the role of an in built CMM machine is very important. The addition of CMM can help detect the external and internal diameter to match to the blueprint.

Aside from cylindrical grinding, there is the roll grinders that are very efficient for many kinds of grinding processes. A roll grinder is a powered grinding tool or machine tool that used for grinding process, which is a common type of machining that utilizes abrasive wheel or wheels as the cutting means for processing. Each grain of abrasive on the wheel's surface cuts a small chip from the work pieces through shear deformation manner.

There is a huge number of grinding machine classifications due to the complicated grinding mechanisms that are all different from one another. Regarding the grinder inventory, there are belt grinder, bench grinder, cylindrical grinder, surface grinder, tool & cutter grinder, jig grinder, gear grinder, die grinder, angle grinder, and roll grinder, just to name a few.  Among each category, there are even more detail classifications. For instance, cylindrical grinder includes both the types that use centers and the center-less types. A cylindrical grinder may have multiple grinding wheels for different purposes. The work piece is rotated and fed past the wheel in order to form a cylinder. It is utilized to make precision rods, tubes, bearing races, bushings, and many other parts. On the other hand, centre grinding is usually employed as a machining process when manufacturing all kinds of high-precision shafts and shaft-shaped work pieces. The primary function of this kind of machines is to grind the centers of a shaft very precisely and accurately.

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