Product category:
Inspection and testing systems
News Release from: Renishaw | Subject: ML10 laser interferometer system
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 14 August 2006
Software enhances laser interferometer
measurement
Software package enables real-time, high-resolution dynamic motion analysis of linear or angular positioning accuracy, velocities, accelerations and vibrations for laser interferometer measurements.
Renishaw makes its ML10 laser interferometer system for machine diagnosis and calibration more flexible and powerful with new, simple-to-use QuickView software that gives engineers continuous 'streaming' data on machine dynamics, viewable on a live oscilloscope-type display An intuitive software package, QuickView enables real-time, high-resolution dynamic motion analysis of linear or angular positioning accuracy, velocities, accelerations and vibrations
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 7 Mar 2001 at 8.00am (UK)
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Essentially, Renishaw has combined the superb accuracy and resolution of its interferometer system with the ease of use of a conventional oscilloscope.
The flexible analytical software makes the ML10, universally used for machine tool calibration, into a powerful, cost-effective tool for engineering, research and academic institutions.
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Just as electronic engineers rely on oscilloscopes to study high-speed variations in voltage or current, QuickView software permits mechanical engineers to study minute variations in linear or angular displacements, velocities, or accelerations in all kinds of machines and mechanical devices.
Display options, combined with inherent low noise of the ML10 laser, permit users to see features on the screen down to 1nm (linear) or 0.01 arc/s (angular) resolution.
Applications include everything from miniaturized, high-speed stages in the electronics and biotechnology fields to transducers, actuators, machine tools, measuring machines, and many kinds and sizes of multi-axis motion systems.
The ML10 interferometer with QuickView software provides a cost-effective alternative to accelerometers and vibrometers, plus the superior accuracy of true differential measurement.
Functionalities of the versatile software include the following.
* Live data display in oscilloscope-style format.
* Three modes of data capture: free running, single shot trigger and multi-shot trigger.
* Easily exportable CSV data format allows detailed off-line analysis.
* Cursors for measurement of amplitude, time and frequency.
* Linear, angular and straightness measurement options.
* Distance, velocity and acceleration display modes.
* Pan and zoom function allowing 'close up' analysis of selected data.
Running on Windows XP, QuickView software reads the laser data at 5kHz and displays the result as a position-versus-time trace on the screen in real time.
Conventional time-base and gain controls enable adjustment of the time-base (X-axis) from 10ms to 20s and the position axis from 100nm to 5m.
Additional on-screen buttons allow selection of AC or DC coupling and a range of low-pass filters with response times of 0ms, 2ms, 5ms, and 10ms.
AC coupling is especially useful when measuring vibration, enabling any slow drift in position (due to thermal expansion, for example) to be rejected.
The QuickView software has the ability (unlike a conventional oscilloscope) to differentiate incoming data to obtain velocity or acceleration versus time traces.
Velocities are obtained by calculating the differences between adjacent laser position readings, while accelerations are computed from the difference between adjacent laser velocity readings.
The ML 10's low-pass filters are especially useful in removing noise from velocity and acceleration traces.
Compared to an accelerometer, the Renishaw interferometer system provides superior linear and angular accuracies for assessing dynamic positioning performance and repeatability.
Linear position data, for example, is accurate to +/-0.7 ppm (e g, +/-0.7 micron over a 1m move).
The QuickView software is designed for use with Renishaw's new DX10 interface, which connects the laser and environmental compensator to the PC via an industry standard USB connection.
The DX10 replaces the older PCMCIA (laptop) or ISA (desktop) interfaces, and is compatible with the established Renishaw 'Laser 10' laser measurement and capture software package.
All ML10 interferometric measurements are based on the wavelength of a known and regulated laser light source.
Distance measurements based on the wavelength of light are recognized internationally as the primary measurement standard, giving the user assured traceability of a measurement back to national standards laboratories.
* Renishaw at IMTS 2006, Chicago, USA, September 6-13, Booth D-4511. Request a free brochure from Renishaw ...
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