MMZ B Plus to measure aircraft parts Carl Zeiss Industrial Measuring Technology (IMT) announced today that Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Ft. Worth, TX has selected a ZEISS gantry coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to measure sub assemblies of the F-35 wings. The F-35 Lightning II is a supersonic stealth fighter designed to replace a wide range of existing aircraft worldwide.
The high-accuracy MMZ B Plus system features a measuring range of 5 x 16 x 2.5 meters and is the largest gantry CMM that Carl Zeiss ever built. Valued at more than 5 million dollars, the order from Lockheed Martin's aerospace division encompasses the measuring machine, plans for the vibration-stabilized foundation, the climate-controlled lab and the integration of a pallet feed system. At a length of 16 meters, the MMZ B Plus is ideally suited to measure aerodynamic tools, wind canal models, 1:1 modules, aircraft wings and elements of the airframe.
"The challenge was to develop a CMM large enough to fit the oversized, structural parts while maintaining highest accuracy during the inspection process", said Walter Pettigrew, Vice President of Sales at Carl Zeiss IMT Corporation. With the MMZ B Plus, Carl Zeiss has built a complete system solution that also offers software compatibility with AIMS, the Advanced Integrated Mathematical System software suite Lockheed is using for F-35 structural parts. AIMS permits seamless sharing of CAD geometries, inspection plans and measurement results between dissimilar software and hardware platforms. During 2006, Carl Zeiss developed an interface for its CAD-based Calypso software to link with AIMS