Renishaw bags another Queen's Award

This is the company's 15th Queen's Award since its formation in 1973, and its sixth in just nine years. The SP80 is used on co-ordinate measuring machines (CMMs) for the accurate measurement of complex parts such as automotive and power train components. Said Sir David McMurtry, Renishaw's chairman and chief executive, said: "We have won many Queen's Awards, but each one is very special, because the rigorous independent judging process continues to ensure that they are rightly regarded as the UK's most prestigious awards for recognising commercial and technological success. I would therefore like to thank all of our staff from around the world who have played a part in the success of the SP80, from the innovative designers and skilled manufacturing teams, through to the highly dedicated sales staff in our many subsidiaries." The SP80 is a quill mounted 'passive' scanning device, which means that the probe itself does not contain any internal drive system, leading to a lighter, less complex product with lower maintenance costs. It is designed for the accurate measurement of parts with deep features and can therefore carry very long styli, up to 800 mm long with a mass of up to 500 g, with no counter-balancing and no significant degradation in measuring performance. The SP80 has an isolated optical method of motion detection, and digital scale and readhead technology that produces a transducer resolution of just 20 nanometres. The relative dynamic response of the probe enables accurate scanning at higher speeds than traditional quill-mounted scanning probes, thereby reducing production bottlenecks and improving process control.