A measurement probe for coordinate measuring machines based on GMR technology

Abstract

A novel measurement probe system is introduced in this paper. The stylus shaft of the probe is mounted on a special diaphragm spring that is exclusively designed with the utilization of finite element analysis. In the probe system, Giant Magneto-Resistive (GMR) sensors are utilized to measure the motion of the stylus shaft in the fundamental directions. The proposed implemented probe is tested on a three-axis CNC electrical discharge machine and the position estimation performance of the proposed paradigm is discussed briefly. The preliminary work presented in this paper demonstrates the capabilities of GMR based probing technology in dimensional metrology.