BLUM presents the TC63 DIGILOG touch probe at Control in Stuttgart (Hall 3, Booth 3410)

Measuring Components

Innovations at Control & WFL technology meeting

Blum-Novotest, the leading manufacturer of innovative and high-quality measuring and testing technology, presents the new TC63-DIGILOG touch probe at Control in Stuttgart (09 - 12 May 2017) and at the WFL Technology Meeting in Linz (21 - 23 March 2017). In so doing, the company is expanding its range to include a highly versatile digital and analogue probe that is ideally suitable for use in multifunction machines such as those by WFL Millturn Technologies.

Heiko Petruska, Sales Manager Austria, explains: "Workpieces that are manufactured on large turning/milling centres such as those supplied by WFL are often very heavy, with vast dimensions and complex shapes. This presents major challenges not only to the production equipment, but also to the measuring systems used. If deviations are only discovered later on using external measuring machines, the necessary rework can only be performed at significant cost, or may not even be possible at all. The new TC63-DIGILOG allows digital measurements and analogue scanning processes to be performed directly on the machine. Visitors to the WFL technology event will get to see the system operating live on a type M65 machine."

Analogue measurement is always advantageous when it comes to evaluating surfaces or lines, for example, if a workpiece surface needs to be checked for machining flaws. Using a switching digital probe in this type of scenario will require the measurement of a very large number of points in order to achieve sufficient resolution. An analogue probe, on the other hand, is scanned across the surface and can generate thousands of measuring values in a fraction of the time. Astonishing speeds of up to 2 metres per minute with exceptional accuracy can be achieved using the TC63-DIGILOG. On turning/milling centres, the range of applications is expanded to include fully automatic circularity tolerance, concentricity and axial runout measurements. 

The primary area of application of the TC63-DIGILOG is on large milling, turning and turning/milling machines, in which the system must be used together with extensions and elbows in order to reach the various measuring points. This is very easy to achieve with the TC63-DIGILOG because its modular design can be quickly adapted to each application, and – thanks to the innovative radio technology – reliable signal transmission is always guaranteed. Particularly on large machines with workpieces of corresponding size, continuous visual contact between touch probe and receiver cannot always be guaranteed. Therefore, the measuring system transmits the data using BLUM's own BRC radio technology, which is already used in many other of the company’s touch probes. 

The analogue measuring values are evaluated and visualised directly on the control screen or on the BLUM touch panel TP48-21, which is also ideally suitable for retrofitting. In this case, the operator can use soft keys to switch easily between the machining programme and the BLUM user interface, which also enables the definition of warning and tolerance limits or the analysis of current measuring results. If a Siemens 840Dsl control is used, the powerful CPU makes it possible to process DIGILOG applications even without an additional IPC.

In principle, the BLUM TC63-DIGILOG is a hybrid of the TC76-DIGILOG touch probe, application-specific accessories such as extensions and elbows as well as a housing with an integrated radio transmission. The measurement values are actually recorded by the adapted touch probe, which also features the proven shark360 measuring mechanism. "During the scanning process, the integrated face gear causes a defined deflection direction at constant deflection forces. Any torsion force that occurs is absorbed by the face gear and therefore has no influence on the measurement result," concludes Petruska.