Max weight of a stylus system

[[Aa...]]

Does anyone know what the spec is for how much total mass a stylus system can have on a VAST XT Gold head on a Micura 5x5x5? I know they stress that it needs to be balanced, but assuming it is balanced, there has to be some upper limit to how much mass we're allowed to put on there.

[[Ju...]]

For the Zeiss VAST XT Gold head, the maximum weight is 500g.

[[Du...]]

[[Ke...]]

Dustin is correct. Here is a screenshot listing the limits for the XT Gold from the sensor manual (it may be available on the portal in the Downloads-Documentation section. I dont know if it is available to customers or not)
Edit-Dustin posted his screenshot while I was posting this, beat me to it. I'll leave this since it also has the moment limit as well

[[Cl...]]

Coming in slightly under the max weight. This stylus system is used for one part!

[[Ow...]]

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Do you store that in a automatic probe changer bay?

[[Cl...]]

Six storage bays. It's a tight fit, but it works. Originally the Contura with the Vast XT Gold was chosen
to measure a single high-volume part that had deep complex geometry. XXT/RDS would not work.

[[Da...]]

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Wow, Nice probe system! How well does it qualify? That disk probe is really long!

[[Cl...]]

Qualifies without issue. I had to create a dual reference sphere mounted on the same base. consisting of an 8mm and a 30mm The stylus system was built with one part in mind. which has several deep ID undercut diameters. So the because of that length end weight the XXT/RDS would not work.

Here's another one for a similar part.

[[Da...]]

The long block on the first stylus system, is it titanium? Did you purchase the long block (if so, from who?) or have it built?
Sorry for all the questions, but I've been starting to use similar multi probe systems due to changer limitations. We have 4 micuras and they each have 4 bay changer racks, so if I can make one system for each complicated job, then I can change out 1 bay for that job and not stop our regular production runs... [img]
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[[Cl...]]

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Yes, I believe it is Titanium. I purchased from Zeiss and built all those styli systems about 11 years ago. The parts I made these styli for are multiple high-speed cutting/drilling hand pieces used for Orthopedic surgery. Managment wanted short cycle times on the CMM, so I had to come up with stylus systems that could do the most measurements with the least number of changes.

[[Aa...]]

Clarke,are those extensions ceramic? I've never seen a ceramic extension, before...

[[Ri...]]

Where's the love for the large stylus systems??

1 meter in one direction. Qualified around 0.0003mm.

VAST Gold =

[[Cl...]]

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Yes, they are. Forgot where I got them? They also break very easily when tightening.

[[Aa...]]

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I'm guessing the pros and cons are the same as using carbide shanks on probes:
+high rigidity/low diameter
- fragility
- relatively high cost

Am I right? I'm just trying to learn, here.

We pretty much just use 11mm diameter carbon fiber extensions, here. They're extremely light and rigid, and we can get them fairly inexpensively from ITP.

We gave up on aluminum years ago when it was discovered that aluminum extensions exhibit dramatic, slow post-assembly mechanical recoil (like a slow-acting torsion spring). This wouldn't be if they would put wrench holes at each end . But alas, aluminum extensions are the default, cheap option, so it seems everyone produces them with just one wrench hole, which means, when assembling the system, one ends up "winding the spring" in the process of tightening the connections at their ends. It's kind of a silly problem. I can't imagine it would be that much more expensive for the producers to do it right. (hint, hint) 👩‍🏫