M3 XXT, Knurled styli, ruby sphere, carbon fibre shaft

These innovative styli with plastic coated thread are a cost-saving alternative to standard styli. Their carbon fibre shaft is tipped with a ruby sphere and has been especially designed for the use with the VAST XXT probe. Beneath the cost factor there is the benefit, that these styli can be mounted without any tools. Compared to conventional styli, these styli have a knurled plastic adapter with titanium core. The styli can thus be screwed in and fastened by hand.

Carbon fiber shafts represent an optimum combination of stiffness, weight, and thermal linear expansion. This makes them particularly suitable for long styli and demanding measurement tasks, such as in production with constantly changing ambient temperatures. They are also ideal for magnetic applications. The straight shaft is the simplest stylus design and the one with the longest usable length. The full shaft length can be used as measuring length. Carbon fibre shafts have the best thermal behaviour and the lowest weight, but a little less stiffness.

Ruby styli are the standard for almost all applications and are available in a variety of different diameters. Another advantage is that ruby spheres can be produced in very small diameters (from 0.12 mm). On the other hand, ruby has weaknesses at the continuous scanning of certain materials and surfaces. With extremely soft materials, e.g. aluminum, material from the workpiece can be deposited on the ruby surface (material deposit). Very hard and rough surfaces, e.g. castings, on the other hand, cause abrasion of the sphere (material removal). The shape of the sphere changes as a result and loses accuracy.