General Tips
If your CMM fails a routine, don’t panic. Make sure everything is clean, loaded correctly, and that you have calibrated the probe before you run the check again. Consider using the supplied clamping pin to securely fasten the Swift-Check plate to one of the mounting holes in the CMM bed so you can rule out the possibility of the Swift-Check plate moving.
On larger machines, consider running the Swift-Check routines in different locations on your CMM, so that you can identify which area gives the optimal results.
If your machine consistently fails a routine, contact your local Hexagon service department for further investigation.
To sufficiently monitor drift, run your chosen check or checks on a regular basis (at least once a month) and after any collisions on the CMM.
There are many environmental factors that may influence your results. These include humidity, vibration, cleanliness, and temperature. Temperature fluctuations can have a detrimental impact on the machines performance and Swift-Check's results. In particular, conditions that exceed either the recommended working temperature range or the maximum allowable rate of temperature change (typically ±1° per hour over any 1m³) have a negative effect on your results. For this reason, we strongly advise that you monitor the environmental conditions around your CMM, and allow both the machine and the Swift-Check artifact to stabilize before you use them.
If the CMM has just been turned on or has idled for several hours, consider executing a warm-up procedure on the CMM before you perform any Swift-Check routines. This consists of a simple routine that drives the machine along the full extent of each of its axes a number of times to exercise all of the motors and encoders. Contact your local Hexagon service department for more information.
Note
NOTE: The Swift-Check artifact and the routines Swift-Check performs do not directly correlate to any of the procedures performed during a CMM calibration. Swift-Check is designed to provide useful confidence data. It does not replace tests from Hexagon service personnel. The original certificates supplied with the Swift-Check are for reference only.
As both the CMM and Swift-Check artifacts have a measurement uncertainty, we recommend that you run a Swift-Check routine immediately after the CMM calibration. This provides you with a set of data to compare future calibrations against — a “baseline.” You can define a measurement plan to meet process requirements (For example, once per shift, once per week etc.) or whenever unexpected activity occurs (For example, a probe collision). You can monitor and use these measurements to diagnose or predict when your machine requires service.
To ensure reliable measurements, you may decide to have your Swift-Check artifacts entered into your quality system and certified periodically to ensure their condition is maintained to a suitable standard.
It is also possible to replace any of the artifacts; however, you need to obtain a new baseline and enter new artifacts' information into the Settings page of Swift-Check to update the configuration file.