Head replaced once a year due to a broken taration?

[[Ya...]]

Hello everybody, 

every Year is the same. I am on Vacation for 2 weeks. 1-2 Weeks after that my Taration gives up.. 
I always use slow Speeds for first time runs. Crash speed is max 50mm/s on my shifts.. 

Is there something that can Cause Damages to the Taration inside of a Vast Gold Head? 
The heaviest probe is a 340g Start Probe Ø3mm.  

I also have the feeling while changing probesystems the head is getting to much force..

I am Paranoid and keep teaching-in the Holder positions once a Week.
On our other Machine we have a Vast XT Gold Head. In my 5 Years with this Company has never been changed.. (Machine max speed is 70mm/s)

Is it normal to need a new Head every Year? (Vast Gold, aka long Boi) 

[[No...]]

On our old Contura (installed 2001) with a non-gold XT head we were used to replacing the head once every 1.5 to 2 years on average. The CMM ran almost 24/7 in 3 shifts and operators were untrained in Calypso (only Autorun), so they often overlooked obvious collision risks, which contributed a great deal to the number of harmful collisions. Most of the time the head failed due to worn dampening or broken taration.

[[Ch...]]

are your stylus builds really lop-sided, e.g. heavy on one side without counter balances ??

[[St...]]

Where I just started working 6 months ago the operators don't follow best practice when performing Manual Probe Change.  At the prompt to wait 5 seconds they begin to hold on to the stylus system as if it were a tool holder in a CNC chuck.  I have tried to instruct them to hold their hand under the Stylus system ready to catch it when released, but they claim what they are doing is fine.

That even with Taration error messages coming up on screen and Calypso freezing up.  I've got some re-education to bring here. 

[[Ma...]]

We are running from 2016 with original VAST XT head - i can not say it's 24/7 whole time, but some work was done :-)

We are using rack, so manual changes are almost non existent - but when i do them i don't hold them - i have fingers in U shape to chatch falling probe.

[[No...]]

I put my hand against the fixed part of the head and only touch the probe plate ever so slightly with two fingers, so I'm able to grab it immediately when it falls. I also take care not to push it in any direction while touching it. The XT head has a defelction of ~1 mm. If manual movement stays within that range you're fine.

Edited July 18, 2025

[[Ya...]]

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not that i can say, almost every Probe is symmetrical. My biggest Differences are a 0.7mm 30 mm long probe -X and on the other side +X 17mm long 0,5mm probe. 

[[Ya...]]

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I only use the Rack to change Pobesystems. So almost zero manual changes..

 

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I already do the same if i have to drop a Probe Manually. 

 

Thanks for all the Reply´s 🙂