Renishaw Equator experience?

[chris m]

Hello again, eMastercammers

 

I haven't been around much over the last decade or so, and feel a little bad about returning with my hand out, but not bad enough to stop me

 

I am looking for any feedback from users of the Renishaw Equator measuring system. We're looking to add automated measuring and feedback of measurement data to one of our turning centers, and the Renishaw Equator seems to have all of the functionality / features that we want, at a very reasonable price range.

 

That being said, i am concerned because of:

 

1) the rather erector set-like appearance of the thing

2) the fact that they master on an actual workpiece, not a calibration artifact, and compare all measured parts to this "master part"

3) that the +.0000/-.0005 ID and OD tolerances involved are tighter than we've typically been able to accurately measure with CMMs and similar machines

 

Currently, the machine will run for hours without requiring any offsets (Okumas rock), so the last thing we want to do is eff up the process by feeding back erroneous measurement data, but we're looking to begin some lights-out operations, and i can't have the machine making bad parts for [12] hours before somebody figures it out.

 

Any Equator experience, impressions, scuttlebutt would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

C

[crazy^millman]

Awesome machine and with the Verisurf add-on you turn it a one of a kind system. I have heard some people selling competitive products discount it to support their sales, but I have seen them in action. If your parts fit in it's envelop then you can't ask for a more robust system to help a company meet today's quality requirements. It's repeatability and ease of use is pretty amazing for such a small foot print. Again you listen to the competition they discount it to support their more expensive more difficult systems to use and implement. Mastercam and Verisurf together just can't be matched for any shop. Need to get a hold of your local Mastercam dealer and see if they are fully a Verisurf support group, if not get a hold of our group and we can help direct you to the right people to get a hold of.

 

Let me see if I can address your 3 points:

1: Don't let the appearance fool you if is a very good system.

2: Don't let that trip you up as Verisurf allows you more flexibility than what the Renishaw people are aware of.

3: I think that is right on the limits of what the machine is at for tolerance, but could be wrong. That is where some gage R&R will help you determine what is a good tolerance range to expect from it to meet your needs.

 

With any new technology there is always that learning curve, but this has been around for a few years now and think a lot of the issues have been worked out. I would have no problem recommending any shop use one. One of our customers had a CMM checking its results for over 9 months and it supported CMM results within .0001" and .0002" day in and day out. I can't go into more detail than that.

 

Again where I am glad we have such a diversity of customers to get involved and see so many different things going on in today's manufacturing.

[mkd]

https://www.verisurf.com/hardware/cmmmaster

 

their website says they do a volumetric compensation. sounds like a good way for a starter CMM or shop floor application.

thanks for the tip, Ron.

[chris m]

Ron, thanks for the information. I knew nothing about the Verisurf offering; be interesting to hear what the Renishaw guys have to say about that.

 

If we were working with a ±.002 tolerance, we would've bought this thing already; I have some parts going over to Renishaw this week for some measurement data feedback.

 

I will report back any impressions I have

 

C

[YoDoug®]

Chris,

 

I do not have experience with the Equator but I can say that for any gauging feedback to the machine tool I would highly recommend AutoComp from Caron engineering. It runs directly on the Okuma control and gives a lot of control over ,trends, sampling size, etc, for offset updating. 

[chris m]

Doug, we are right down the road from Caron Engineering (relatively speaking) and have first-hand experience with their prowess. We are definitely going with AutoComp for this machine, and are excited to see how effective it is.

 

I hate the P300, but it seems like it supports the AutoComp well.

 

C

[YoDoug®]

Doug, we are right down the road from Caron Engineering (relatively speaking) and have first-hand experience with their prowess. We are definitely going with AutoComp for this machine, and are excited to see how effective it is.

 

I hate the P300, but it seems like it supports the AutoComp well.

 

C

 

What specifically do you not like about the P300? Most of it can be turned off to make it like a P200.

[chris m]

Doug, I think that the easy-op / easy-modeling, tool registration, attach/detach tools stuff sucks, in both the mill and the lathe.

 

I like the P200LA the best of any control we have; simple to use, powerful functionality.

 

The stock definition for animation in the P200 is lousy, but they could've fixed that without all of the other complicated crap in the P300.

 

I know I can shut off most, if not all, of the stuff I don't like, but I want my guys to run it the way that the REMCO apps guys run it, because their training and phone support is more effective that way

 

C

[YoDoug®]

Well, I can say that is not a surprise. For users of older Okuma, the P300 has a lot of functionality that forces you to do things differently. The latest iteration of P300 software does allow you do define tool shapes from the turret page without having to do the easy modelling. We just starting seeing machines show up in the past month or two with that addition. That should help the older users feel more like what they are used to.