Absolute Interferometer with PowerLock Technology: A Fundamental Increase in the Usability of Laser Trackers

Abstract

Half history, half product. Joel Martin traces the laser tracker from the SMART310 through the LTD500 – whose absolute distance meter descended from the Kern Mekometer – to the SMX4500 and the FARO SI, and with it the recurring problem of breaking the beam and what each generation of ADM did about it. The second half covers the Absolute Interferometer: improving absolute measurement accuracy, integrating the interferometer for dynamic lock-on, and removing the interferometer-only mode permanently with PowerLock, so that an operator who walks through the beam no longer loses the measurement.