There is described a system for manufacturing a part. The system generally has a receiving area receiving said part, a first reference gauge and a second reference gauge which are subjected to common environmental conditions, said first reference gauge having a first nominal dimension and said second reference gauge having a second nominal dimension different from said first nominal dimension; a measurement device measuring dimensions of said first and second reference gauges, and measuring dimensions of said part; and a controller communicatively coupled to said measurement device, said controller determining a calibration curve by performing a mathematical fit based on said first and second nominal dimensions and said measured dimensions of said first and second reference gauges; and constructing a machine-readable dataset representative of said part, including modifying said measured dimensions of said part based on said calibration curve.

A touch trigger probe interface for a machine tool is described that includes a probe communication portion for receiving probe event information from a touch trigger probe. A machine tool communication portion is also provided for outputting probe event information to a numerical controller of the machine tool. The machine tool communication portion outputs the probe event information as digital data packets, for example over a digital data bus. The digital data packets may include a time stamp and/or the touch trigger probe interface may receive timing information from the machine tool. A touch trigger probing system and a machine tool system including the probe interface are also described.

Disclosed is a workpiece measurement method for determining the position of a workpiece on a machine tool based on feed shaft coordinates when a probe and the workpiece contact each other, in which the probe and the workpiece are moved relative to each other. The method includes the steps of moving one of the plurality of feed shafts to a desired measurement position, storing coordinate values of the one feed shaft at the desired measurement position, moving the probe and the workpiece relative to each other by means of the one feed shaft and another feed shaft, stopping the movement by the one feed shaft when the stored coordinate values have been reached, and measuring the workpiece at a plurality of measurement points by moving the probe using the other feed shaft in a state in which the one feed shaft is stopped at the coordinate values.

A touch trigger probe interface for a machine tool is described that includes a probe communication portion for receiving probe event information from a touch trigger probe. A machine tool communication portion is also provided for outputting probe event information to a numerical controller of the machine tool. The machine tool communication portion outputs the probe event information as digital data packets, for example over a digital data bus. The digital data packets may include a time stamp and/or the touch trigger probe interface may receive timing information from the machine tool. A touch trigger probing system and a machine tool system including the probe interface are also described.

A measuring apparatus for measuring a planar relative motion between a tool attacher and a work attacher of a machine tool includes at least one image capturing element capable of performing image capturing at a first position, a second position, and a third position, which are not located on the same line. The image capturing elements at the first position, the second position, and the third position are caused to capture a first point, a second point, and a third point, respectively, arranged on at least one plane of an XY-plane, an XZ-plane, and a YZ-plane. The image capturing element at the second position and the image capturing element at the third position are caused to capture the first point, the image capturing element at the first position and the image capturing element at the third position are caused to capture the second point, and the image capturing element at the first position and the image capturing element at the second position are caused to capture the third point. Based on the image capturing result, a value indicating the planar relative motion between the tool attacher and the work attacher is calculated.

Disclosed is a workpiece measurement method for determining the position of a workpiece on a machine tool based on feed shaft coordinates when a probe and the workpiece contact each other, in which the probe and the workpiece are moved relative to each other. The method includes the steps of moving one of the plurality of feed shafts to a desired measurement position, storing coordinate values of the one feed shaft at the desired measurement position, moving the probe and the workpiece relative to each other by means of the one feed shaft and another feed shaft, stopping the movement by the one feed shaft when the stored coordinate values have been reached, and measuring the workpiece at a plurality of measurement points by moving the probe using the other feed shaft in a state in which the one feed shaft is stopped at the coordinate values.

A method for calibrating a CNC processing apparatus is provided that can significantly reduce the amount of operation time required for sensor calibration. A method of the present invention for calibrating a non-contact sensor in a CNC processing apparatus 1 includes a first step, a second step and a third step. In the first step, the center coordinates of a reference instrument are measured with a contact probe and thereby the machine coordinates of the center of the reference instrument are determined. In the second step, after a non-contact sensor 110 is mounted onto a spindle 26, the center coordinates of the reference instrument are measured only one time with the non-contact sensor 110, and thereby the non-contact sensor coordinates of the center of the reference instrument are determined. In the third step, calculations are made to determine the amount of displacement required to bring the non-contact sensor coordinates obtained in the second step into agreement with the machine coordinates obtained with the contact probe in the first step.

The present invention is configured such that: when an operator moves a spindle and a table relative to each other using a jog-feed means and when a measurement probe comes into contact with a workpiece fixed on the table, the coordinates of each feed axis are stored; the type of measurement performed by the operator is identified on the basis of the information concerning the feed axis used for moving said measurement probe, the moving direction of the feed axis, the number of times the measurement probe has come into contact with the workpiece, and the number of the jog-feed operation being currently performed by the operator; and the workpiece is measured on the basis of the stored coordinates of the respective feed axes.

In a method for determining a deviation of a spatial orientation of a beam axis (S) of a beam processing machine from a spatial nominal orientation (S0) of the beam axis (S), contour sections (KA1, KB2) are cut with a processing beam into a test workpiece from two sides of the workpiece. The contour sections (KA1, KB2) extend parallel to a nominal orientation of a rotation axis (B, C), where the rotation axis is to be calibrated. The contour sections (KA1, KA2) are probed from one side of the test workpiece by a measuring device for determining the spatial position of the contour sections (KA1, KB1). Deviation of the spatial orientation of the beam axis (S) of the beam processing machine from the spatial nominal orientation (S0) is determined based on the spatial positions of the contour sections (KA1, KB1).

A method of manufacturing a feature in a part with a cutting tool, includes machining a semi-finished shape of the feature, determining an actual position of at least one target point on a surface of the semi-finished shape, and computing a difference between the determined position of the at least one target point and a nominal position of the at least one target point on a digitized model of the part having the semi-finished shape of the feature. As a function of the difference, a correction to a position of the cutting tool on a nominal tool path to achieve the final shape of the feature from the semi-finished shape is determined, and the correction is used to define a corrected tool path. The finished shape of the feature is then machined with the cutting tool by moving the cutting tool along the corrected tool path.