Probe head of the switching type

US5111592A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Carl-Zeiss-Stiftung, Heidenheim/Brenz · DE

Inventors

• Peter Aehnelt · Oberkochen, DE
• Eckhard Enderle · Aalen, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 17, 1991
• Grant date: May 12, 1992
• Expiry date: Oct 17, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01B3/008
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A probe head for a multiple-coordinate measuring machine defines the at-rest or zero position of a movable probe-pin holder part with respect to a relatively fixed housing part of the head, by employing a flexible coupling between a circular base of the probe-pin holder and a circular reference surface of the housing. The flexible coupling comprises a stacked plurality of interconnected flat disks or rings of spring material, one ring on top of the next, and their interconnections are at sector regions which are at progressively staggered, angularly offset locations, from one to the next pair of sector-connected adjacent surfaces in the stack. In the at rest condition, all rings of the coupling are axially compressed, with their flat surfaces in direct axial abutment with each other, as well as with the fixed part and the movable part of the probe head. Provision is made for switched entry of measuring-machine coordinates as of the instant of probe-pin contact with a workpiece, and for automatically avoiding entry of measuring-machine coordinates that are not based on such probe-pin contact.