Gary Hobart is global vision product manager at the Hexagon Metrology Precision Center (Elgin, IL). For more information, call (847) 931-0100, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.hexagonmetrology.us.
The reason comparators have not changed much in 85 years is that the fundamental technology behind an optical comparator is elegantly simple, and it simply works.
The coordinate measuring machine (CMM) business continues to churn out emerging technologies at an eager pace. Likewise, the 2-D vision measurement industry also is moving with the times. As modern day manufacturing increasingly relies on 3-D computer-aided design (CAD) data to produce accurate parts, the vision world has made the leap into this new dimension.