Manually change adapter plates

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I have removed the adapter plates rack because I need work area to CMM parts. I would like to hear tips for those that do change adapter plates by hand manually. I really dislike adapter plates rack because it occasionally don't park the $#@% adapter correctly(it literally drop and crashed the adapter on to CMM granite surface 😱

Speaking of adapter rack, I bolted it to a wood bench so that I can store adapters. 😎

My tips:
-You got 5 seconds to release the adapter plates!! 😉
-Be sure to move CMM head of clearance plane before changing the adapters otherwise it can crash to part even though the first feature already set the probe clearance group(+Y,-Y,+Z,+X,-X etc). After switching adapter, watch to make sure it goes to the very next feature.
-Be sure adapter is connected header correctly.
-Keep adapter connector clean.

IMG_3893.jpg

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Have you tried re-locating the holders with the MasterProbe?
We've had ours for 11 years with no problems at all.

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Use to have some probes that were not run very often and used the manual probe change.
For programs that used that probe only it was simple, add probe manually and calibrate probe before starting program.
For programs that changed to the probe in the middle of the program, I used CMM positions to move the head out of the way and into a easy to get to position and program stops to instruct the operator how to do it.
If I was running the program myself and could ensure the probe had never accidently been hit or damaged, I wouldn't calibrate it but, with the uncertainty of running 3 shifts, I set it up to where the probe wouldn't run without it being calibrated.

Regarding your tips, add " if you break it, you buy it".

The automatic probe changer that moves out of the CMM measurement range area, the Pro-Max E (see attached), wouldn't be a cheap option but, cool nothing less 😎 .

CMM Automatic probe changeer_ProMax_EN.pdf

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About ten years ago I designed a sliding base for a rack, for the same reason, needed more room.
This base allowed me to move the rack out of the way for maximum travel on my Y axis.
Moving the rack back to its normal location did not require qualifying probe holders.

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The only time this happened to me was some 20 years ago when the first generation of the ProMax moving rack was still new and there was an error in the controller firmware truncating important decimal places from the Y travel distance into the storage bay. This resulted in a 1:100 chance of the plate not attaching correctly to the head and dropping to the granite after being pulled out of the rack.

It took the rack vendor a long time to find he cause, but after it had been fixed, it never occurred again.