Historically there has been a marked reluctance by the users of machine tools to use probing, typical objections included; “Increased cycle times” and “machine tools are for cutting not measuring”. Both Sentiments have been largely based on misconceptions as to the real applications and benefits and also entrenched attitudes to improvements and methods of machine tool operation.

Today, the acceptance of quality control in the production environment and drive towards maximising machine productivity, have finally seen probing accepted as a standard practice in the field of production engineering.

The use of probes in the set-up of CNC machine tools brings significant productivity improvement by reducing the downtime associated with manual set-up of tools, fixtures and work pieces, including the vast accurate inspection of first off components.