An apparatus for minimizing the wipe action on a contact surface by a beam supported probe tip of a probe body, the apparatus comprising, in combination:
- a. at least a first support beam and a second support beam, not necessarily parallel, each beam having first and second connection joints being displaced,
- said support beams being in a spaced relationship to a work-object having the first support beam spaced between the second beam and the work-object,
- a first support means and a second support means,
- the support beams being connected to the first support means that is relatively movable to the work-object, at first joints, and the second ends of the beams being connected at second joints to a movable second support means, the said second support means carrying the probe body, and supporting the probe body such that the motion, of the second joints of the beams connected to the second support means, closely matches whatever curvature of the paths is required to substantially maintain the probe tip on whatever is the required linear probe path, when a linear motion of the relatively movable first support means of the beam supported probe is provided relative to a contact area of whatever is the associated surface of the work-object being probed,
- the probe tip being the part of the probe body which is to operatively contact the contact area of the surface of the work-object being probed,
- thereby providing that the only resulting relative motion of the probe body and probe tip is a rotation of the probe body pivoting at an initial point of contact of the probe tip with the work-object, and thus providing that a line through the beams' second joints at the second support means need not be perpendicular to either beam to provide a substantially linear probe path,
- b. the first support means being supportively connected to a first end of both beams at first connection joints,
- c. the first support means provided with a position that is spaced above the work-object, and spaced from the required linear probe path,
- d. a second support means carried by the beams at their second ends and connected thereto at second connection joints,
- and such that the second support means carries the probe body with the tip extending in the direction of the probing surface of the associated work-object,
- e. the first beam's first connection joint on the first support means having a position as,
- f. the first beam's second connection joint on the second support means having a position,
- g. said two positions of the first and second connection joints being such as to provide that the combined length of the first support beam and the probe body are sufficient to enable the probe tip to reach all points along whatever is the required linear probe path,
- h. an associated carrying means which is movable relative to the work-object and carrying the support means,
- i. the second beam's second connection joint on the second support means being spaced from the first beam's second connection joint on the second support means,
- j. the length of the second beam being such, and the position of the second beam's first connection joint being such, that if the tip of the probe body is moved with only the first beam connected to the first and second supports as specified above, to three positions substantially on and spaced throughout the entirety of whatever is the required linear probe path,
- the second beam's second connection joint on the second support means having three joint positions which, by corresponding to the positions of the probe tip as specified above, are used to define a circle that passes through the three joint positions,
- the radius of the said circle being substantially the length of the second beam, and the center of the said circle being substantially the location of the first support position of the second beam's first joint,
- k. the length and joint positions of the second beam as specified above thereby causing the tip of the probe body, when moved relative to the first supporting means such that it passes through the said three positions, thus producing a substantially linear motion throughout the entirety of the range of said three points,
- the shape as specified above which is formed by the connection of the beams and their supporting means providing that the beams and their support means are operative as specified above, regardless of whether they have any sides parallel or any joints perpendicular, and even if the second connection joint of the first beam to a support means is directly above or directly below the second connection joint of the second beam to the second support means,
- the beams being supported in a relatively adjacent spaced relationship such that the perpendicular distances of the beams' first connection joints to the required linear probe path are different.