Recommendations for Optimal Results

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Errors associated with environmental conditions, targets or target tooling, movement or changes in the part or stand, etc. occur with most types of measurement equipment. However, these are some guidelines specific to the Vantage that, when followed, result in improved measurement accuracy.

• Optimal results will always occur in an environment that does not have large temperature changes, temperature gradients, air movement, floor vibrations, etc. Steps to minimize the sources of these in the environment should be taken prior to beginning measurements.

• Let the Vantage fully complete Thermal Stabilization in the Startup Checks. If this is skipped, a decrease in the Vantage's accuracy will occur.

  In order for the Vantage to perform within the published specifications, you must allow Thermal Stabilization to complete or the Vantage should be powered on and locked onto an SMR for 1 to 2 hours to warm-up as is typical of all Laser Tracker devices.

• Verify the Vantage's accuracy prior to beginning measurements running the Quick Compensation routine. You should then run the Angular Accuracy Checks and Pointing Compensation routines if the Angular Accuracy Checks fails and CompIT recommends it.

• Quick Compensation is the fastest compensation and is acceptable where the best accuracy is not required. However, Pointing Compensation yields lower backsight error or improved Angular Accuracy results. Calculating the very best kinematic parameters is important for high accuracy applications especially at longer distances. For very high accuracy measurements and /or measurements at long distances, having a properly warmed-up Vantage and running the Pointing Compensation routine is required.

• Periodically check for movement between the part and the Vantage using common points attached to the part. If excessive movement is detected or if the ambient temperature has changed more than approximately 2.8° Celsius (5° Fahrenheit), use the Move Device command in FARO CAM2 2021 , or the equivalent in other software, to realign to the part if movement has occurred. Perform this check even in environments where ambient temperature changes and vibration are kept to a minimum.

• Periodically reset the SMR to the Home position for very high accuracy measurements. This resets the ADM distance to the known distance to the center of the SMR in the Home position and can eliminate very small changes that can occur over time or temperature in the radial measurements. This is also known as Tracker Mounted Reset (TMR). These very small changes do not affect most applications but can affect very high accuracy measurements.

• By default, an individual reading of a measurement uses a sampling rate of 1000 samples per reading resulting in a total measurement time of 1 second. When using a scanning or dynamic method to collect readings, reduce the total measurement time by lowering the total number of samples per reading. Moving the SMR over a curved surface while taking 1000 samples per reading typically used for the static measurement, results in a single reading that is the average of the SMR movement over a 1 second time period. A typical scan setting would be to lower the samples per reading to 5 resulting in an individual measurement time span of 5 milliseconds. Moving the SMR over a curved surface with this setting will result in a series of multiple readings that are identical to the path the SMR traveled around the curve. Use the Device Center Panel command in the measurement software to change this setting.

• Do not turn the Vantage's motors off during breaks or shift changes. Turning the motors off for long periods of time can result in a slight change in the Vantage’s internal operating temperature away from its stabilized condition. This can degrade accuracy in the measurements taken soon after turning the motors back on. Leaving the motors on will prevent this from occurring. Leaving the motors on will not harm the Vantage.

Do not cover the Vantage while it is turned on. Only use the Vantage’s dust cover when it is turned off. Using the dust cover while the system is turned on will not allow the Vantage to properly stabilize to the environments current ambient temperature. This can degrade accuracy in the measurements taken soon after removing the cover. If the environment is very dirty and you are concerned about dust on the embedded targets, you can track to the left or right side of the Vantage to rotate the Azimuth axis so that it covers these targets.