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SMAs ,Calibrations, and stuff like that.


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We are thinking of going to another company to do calibrations on our 4 micuras. The cost savings will be considerable (surprise)!
I'm sure some of you have tried this, and I'm wondering, what effect has it had on Zeiss service, our SMAs and general relations with Zeiss?
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We exclusively use a 3rd party for Software Purchases, Service, Maintenance, and Calibrations. But that's in Canada and this company has a partnership with Zeiss. Their techs are trained by Zeiss, have all the same equipment, and for us are much closer.

This is in Canada however, I don't know if Zeiss has this kind of arrangement in USA or anywhere else with 3rd party companies.
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We've used a 3rd party before due to scheduling issues etc. and the quality of service was definitely lower.
Sure, you got a sticker saying that the machine is calibrated and in spec, but just by observing the tech doing it I've had doubts its checked correctly.
I'm sure it depends a lot on actual company doing it.
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I could be wrong but, I don't believe others can adjust CAA file paths to get the most accuracy available per axis without replacing or adjusting actual parts, not legally anyhow?
That said, price increases (what hasn't right 🙄 ) and delayed service dates with all the internal management changes they've made has me thinking about investigating other options.
We're currently looking into purchasing another Accura or Contura to go along with the 5 Duramax's and Accura 2 we already have but, I've got engineers within trying to convince me and others to go with a different brand. 😐
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I believe that you get what you pay for. We've gone outside of Zeiss in the past
and have had "Issues". In addition, the SMA's are invaluable. I'd stick with Zeiss.
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I agree, we are reviewing the company's capability right now. I wasn't planning on going with an outside source for the SMA, just worried that if we go outside for Cal, would Zeiss handle us differently when it comes to SMA type problems and services.
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They are amazing. Laura J. is a genius when it comes to anything metrology, especially Calypso and PiWeb.
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I had a similar comment in another thread that was deleted a week or so ago ...

We are on an alternating two year calibration cycle between our two Duramax machines due to cost and scheduling with Zeiss. When we reached out 2-3 months in advance of our calibration due date on one of our machines recently we were told it would be about 5-6 months before a tech could get in to do our calibration. We are on the schedule for a tech to be here in July, sooner if their schedule allows ... so fingers crossed!

I am very hesitant to go third party for calibrations and servicing. While I don't know the full details our shop went that route once about 5 years ago before I was here mostly because of cost savings before going back to Zeiss after some "weird issues" persisted and a significant crash occurred. Again, this is anecdotal and second hand but the SMA is worth the peace of mind for us and has gotten our machines back up in running the couple of times where I have run into significant issues since I started a few years ago.

That said my quality room Duramax that I perform all final inspections on will be about 4 months out of calibration by the time a tech gets in here. It's frustrating and I get that there may be issues outside of their control when it comes to scheduling and pricing but it also doesn't seem to be improving, we at least have an identical floor CMM that will still be in calibration so I can switch over to that one as needed.
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