System Shut down best practices - leaving a stylus system in the head

[[Jo...]]

My colleague is recommending that the operator remove the probe from the probe head prior to machine shutdown. Is there an issue with leaving the stylus system in the CMM head while the machine is off? Or is it best practice to remove the current probe from the probe head prior to shutdown?

I also commented to not overcomplicate the operator's instructions as there could be a risk of messing something up with them using the automatic changer.

I didn't think this was an issue, but I wanted to double-check.

TIA!

[[Ke...]]

Never have I ever - removed the probe from the probe head prior to machine shutdown... at least in the last 30 years 😂

If anything, I prefer to have the Master Probe loaded prior to an intended shutdown of the machine.

[[No...]]

In our setup we swap the styli in the rack with almost every part. Therefore the Autorun-only operators needed a way to remove all the styli from the CMM without having to mess around with the joystick box or the like. Our foolproof solution is to have an empty probe plate in a special place in the rack at all times, which can be fetched by a special program when a part change is due or the machine has to be shut down.

A possible issue with an arbitrary stylus being left in the head is that it may collide with the rack when the machine is homed. But I remember that some years ago they added a Calypso function where you can mark each stylus as to whether it is "homing-proof" or not. But I can't remember how to get there.

Leaving the CMM without a stylus in the head carries the risk of particles accumulating at the magnet.

[[Jo...]]

Yeah, I would typically leave the prob on during shutdown, I have never had any issues doing this. 

Thanks for the feedback guys!

[[DW...]]

Please sign in to view this quote.

Please sign in to view this username.

 This is correct, I have ours set to not home with any stylus in the head. It throws a warning if there is a stylus present, and then lets you drop it before homing. Off the top of my head I can't recall the location for the setting, but probably not too hard to find by poking around in the CMM settings. 

[[Th...]]

Please sign in to view this quote.

This would be Settings > CMM > Probe > Check stylus.

[[Ma...]]

Removing probe from head would be easier on XXT, but there are usually not so heavy probes.

Vast on the other hand can have benefits for removing probes, but i was told that machine is so much whining about no probe, that we just keep last probe there.
None of the probes are risk for collision while homing.