Method of using a mounting for surface-sensing stylus
AssigneeRenishaw PLC
InventorDavid R. McMurtry
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The mounting comprises a base supporting a first rotary motor whose shaft has secured thereto a housing supporting a second rotary motor whose shaft has the stylus secured thereto. Each motor is operable optionally in a constant torque mode and a positioning mode and each motor has an angular position transducer. In use, the base is secured to the operating member of a coordinate measuring machine and the machine is driven through a path such that the free end of the stylus can maintain engagement with the surface of a workpiece under the force generated by one of the motors while that motor is in the constant torque mode. The profile of said surface is then determined as a function of the coordinate position of the operating member, the angular position and the length of the stylus.
Claims5
A method of scanning a surface of a workpiece with a surface sensing device, the device being supported on an operating member of a coordinate positioning machine by a mounting device providing movement of said surface sensing device with 2 degrees of freedom relative to said operating member, the workpiece being supported on a table of the machine, the operating member and the table being movable one relative to the other, the method comprising the steps of:
- bringing the sensing device into a sensing relationship with the workpiece surface;
- operating the machine to drive the operating member in a first direction along a path adjacent the workpiece surface;
- simultaneously operating the mounting device to move the surface sensing device with an oscillatory motion over the plane of the local workpiece surface;
- maintaining said sensing relationship between the sensing device and workpiece surface;
- and
- measuring:
- (a) the position of the surface sensing device relative to the operating member;
- and
- (b) the position of the operating member relative to the table.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.