The L.S. Starrett Co. has introduced a new generation of its HDV300 and HDV400 benchtop Digital Video Comparators with impressive speed increases and improved illumination, design and convenience enhancements.

CNC motion on the new HDV systems is significantly faster, enabling even greater user measurement throughput. At 10mm/ sec., speed on the Y-axis has tripled and X-axis speed has almost doubled at 45mm/ sec. In addition, improved LED ring lighting provides a more consistent illumination.

The computer and M3 controller in the new systems are located inside the HDV housing, resulting in a clean design with minimal external wiring and connections. In addition, an optional “clean air kit” keeps airborne dust and contaminants out of the measuring system and control electronics. An all-new workstage design on the latest HDV systems features a 21” x 5” top plate, 12” x 6” of travel and a 110lb. workload capacity, for increased accuracy and productivity. Other new options such as swing-away backlight for large parts, an APT60 rotary positioning device, thread measurement software and calibration tools, further enhance the productivity of the HDV systems.

Starrett HDV systems are rugged bench top machines that are ideal in a quality lab or on the shop floor. The housing is built of welded steel like other Starrett optical comparators. Designed for accuracy, linear glass scales provide 0.00002” (0.5 µm) of resolution to read stage motion.

Starrett HDV systems feature MetLogix M3 touch screen software with the powerful M3 DXF/ FOV option pack. With this software, the HDV can import DXF CAD files over a network and make automatic 2D “go/no-go” comparisons to an engineering design by using video edge detection, with no need for Mylar overlays required with conventional optical comparators. This dramatically increases measurement throughput while eliminating operator subjectivity. Geometric 2D functions include points, lines, circles, arcs, rectangles, distance, slots, angles and skew.

With the Starrett HDV, field-of-view (FOV) measurements can encompass an entire small part up to 2.47” x 1.85”, or a feature of a larger part. FOV measurements can be seamlessly integrated with stage motion to measure larger parts. The HDV is also available with 6:5:1 zoom optics. The telecentric optics and zoom optics are mounted by means of a bayonet fitting and can be easily changed by the user in a matter of seconds.

The main operator interface is via a 24” touch screen video monitor that displays a live video image of the part, in addition to geometry tools and digital readings. The part image can be resized using pan and zoom, and measurements are taken by simply tapping a feature on the screen. An environmentally sealed keyboard and a pointing device are also provided, typically only used to enter file names.

L. S. Starrett

http://www.starrett.com