I am currently looking into the possibility of using a "portable", articulating arm CMM. I will have a rep from Faro demonstrating the Faro Gage Plus on Monday the 16th, but am interested in feedback from users of any of the several manufacturers and varieties.

We are manufacturing electronics controls and our largest item will be a heatsink of approximately 8"x9"x4", our smallest will be some small relays of approximately .25"x.25"x.5". We currently do not have the controlled facilities for a large CMM, so any device we purchase will have to be used in a production environment (~72 degrees F +/- 5 degrees, w/ ~ 50% humidity =/- 20%).

Any thoughts or recommendations?

The environment you described appears to be reasonable for CMMs, except that the RH may be a bit broad.....I would ask about the ability to handle RH, and about the availability for calibration and support, especially accredited calibration.

David,

We used a portable CMM a while back and ran into only one unexpected problem. After moving to the new location and connecting all the airlines and electrical the darn thing wouldn't even turn on and boot. Seems a hilo driver was called away from loading a semi to load the CMM on the company truck. Seems the forks on the hilo had separated all the power lines while picking it up by the undercarriage.

After that we had a trained CMM person supervise CMM moves!

Al...

David,

You did not mention the tolerance expectations you want to accomplish with the arm. We have a Faro arm we use in an uncontrolled environment and have been very happy with it. In fact we have purchased two arms over the years and are contemplating a third. Faro’s service has been exemplary. For our requirements the arm needs to be accurate within plus or minus .003”, which both arms proved to be capable of measuring.

Jim