Renishaw and ZEISS co-operate on flexible workpiece inspection

Renishaw's Equator™ gauging system for flexible workpiece inspection is now compatible with ZEISS CALYPSO® measurement software. ZEISS users will be able to operate the Equator gauging system in their familiar environment and integrate it seamlessly into their production process.

Technology companies Renishaw and ZEISS recently reached an agreement to jointly advance flexible workpiece inspection: Renishaw's Equator gauging system can now also be operated with ZEISS CALYPSO measurement software - an efficiency gain for all ZEISS customers. The integration, training and support of the hardware and software are carried out jointly by both companies.

Flexible workpiece inspection offers added value for customers

"Inspection systems such as calipers or gauges have always been used to control processes in manufacturing, but they are usually only designed to inspect a single workpiece variant. As manufacturing technology advances, so does the demand for new methods of process control," says Rainer Lotz, President of Renishaw, EMEA. "The Equator gauging system enables process monitoring via highly repeatable, thermally insensitive, and most importantly, reprogrammable measurements in a manufacturing environment. For these reasons, many manufacturing companies around the world are already replacing their current test equipment and gauges, with our Equator gauging systems."

ZEISS CALYPSO as an established platform for all measurement tasks

"The comprehensive and globally established ZEISS CALYPSO measurement software already offers our customers one of the most powerful and user-friendly solutions for a wide range of measurement tasks," says Christoph Grieser, responsible for Software Sales in Metrology at ZEISS. “With integration of the Equator system, production-related data from ZEISS CALYPSO can be used efficiently for process control and optimisation. This not only eliminates the operating costs of additional software packages, for which separate training would be necessary, but also expands the functional range of our software in a familiar environment."

"The cooperation with ZEISS is a relevant response to the increased importance and flexibility of production-related workpiece inspection. Therefore, the easier integration of the Equator system will lead to more productivity in manufacturing for many users," adds Rainer Lotz.

Open interface as a long-standing strategy

The collaboration with ZEISS is a further step for Renishaw to gradually open up the Equator gauging system to third-party software manufacturers. The global team has so far made the Equator system compatible with the following measurement software platforms: CAPPSDMIS (AAT3D), TouchDMIS (COORD2), PC-DMIS (Hexagon), PolyWorks (Innovmetric), CAMIO (LK Metrology), Metrolog X4 (Metrologic), INCA (Inspact3D/Mora), Verisurf, WM Quartis (Wenzel) and ZEISS CALYPSO.

About Renishaw

Renishaw is one of the world's leading engineering and scientific technology companies, with expertise in precision measurement and healthcare. The company supplies products and services used in applications as diverse as jet engine and wind turbine manufacture, through to dentistry and brain surgery. It is also a world leader in the field of additive manufacturing (also referred to as 3D printing), where it designs and makes industrial machines which ‘print' parts from metal powder.

The Renishaw Group currently has 79 offices in 37 countries, with over 5,000 employees, of which over 2,500 people are employed within the UK. The majority of the company's R&D and manufacturing is carried out in the UK and for the year ended June 2021 Renishaw achieved sales of £565.6 million, of which 95% was due to exports. The company's largest markets are China, USA, Japan and Germany.

About ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions

ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions is a world leader in quality assurance and inspection. Over 4.500 employees from 11 manufacturing sites and more than 100 sales and service centers support customers around the world. ZEISS is recognized as a leading partner for automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, medical technology, electronics, and plastics industries.

Our range of solutions include coordinate measuring machines, optical 3D scanning, testing, computer tomography and microscopy. ZEISS combines trusted hardware with powerful software to inspect, analyze and evaluate quality data.

All key components, such as controllers, software, measuring systems and sensors are developed and manufactured in-house. To ensure seamless integration into customers quality assurance processes, ZEISS has strong expertise in loading and automation systems, and offers complete turnkey solutions.

This combination and broad product portfolio support customers for today’s and tomorrow’s challenges.