Rugged Handheld Input Device for Brown & Sharpe and Sheffield Branded CMMs

North Kingstown, RI – February 10, 2010 – Hexagon Metrology, Inc. announced the availability of the Universal Jogbox, a new handheld input device for Brown & Sharpe and Sheffield branded Coordinate Measurement Machines (CMMs) shipped from the North Kingstown, Rhode Island factory. Incorporating a modern touch screen interface with an ergonomic design and soft-touch materials, the Universal Jog Box was designed first and foremost to be extremely tough, designed to withstand the rigors of industrial use with improved resistance to drops and similar shocks.

"Not only does the Universal Jogbox offer improved reliability and robustness, but we've also included many new features that will streamline the programming and operation of our Brown & Sharpe and Sheffield branded CMMs," remarked Hexagon Metrology Product Manager, Eric Bennett. "From the layout of the touch screen interface to the new interaction features with our PC-DMIS measurement software, we've taken into consideration how our customers use the CMM and designed a handheld device that optimizes the workflow."

The Universal Jogbox uses a combination of traditional mechanical "hard" buttons, dials, and a joystick along with an industrial color touch screen for "soft", contextual input and output. Traditional mechanical inputs are ideal for speed control and machine movement – these controls are by necessity always available to the user. The touch screen on the other hand is highly configurable. For instance, CMM operators may wear gloves to avoid transferring heat and oil from their hands onto the parts being measured. A special screen was developed to accommodate gloved hand operation with widely spaced buttons. Furthermore, the new touch screen controls employ universal symbology for enhanced usability across many languages. For users that prefer the button layout of the existing Brown & Sharpe or Sheffield joysticks, a touch screen layout is available that duplicates the old-style button types and labels.

An upgrade version of the Universal Jogbox is offered with features to interact directly with PC-DMIS software, avoiding the need to move back and forth between the CMM and computer screen and keyboard. For instance, many PC-DMIS operator prompts can be viewed and answered directly from the Universal Jogbox. In addition, for CMMs that include an automatic indexing probe head, the probe heads index angles can be modified directly from the hand held device.

The new jogbox is immediately available with new machine shipments from Rhode Island and as a replacement upgrade for old style jogboxes for most late model Brown & Sharpe and Sheffield CMMs.

About Brown & Sharpe

The Brown & Sharpe brand name has been synonymous with quality for more than 150 years. Once a stand-alone company, today Brown & Sharpe is a flagship brand of the Hexagon Metrology group. Brown & Sharpe brand Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs), optical measuring systems, 1D, 2D and 3D bench top measuring machines and precision hand tools represent the highest quality in design, construction and performance.

More information can be found at www.BrownandSharpe.com.

About Sheffield Measurement

Sheffield Measurement brings more than a century of experience to the design and manufacture of dimensional measurement products. Sheffield's Cordax® brand CMMs have been adopted by hundreds of companies around the world for the dimensional inspection of their precision manufactured parts.

More information can be found at www.SheffieldMeasurement.com.

About Hexagon Metrology

Hexagon Metrology serves the high precision measurement and inspection needs of worldwide manufacturers with its extensive line of metrology hardware, software, accessories, and customer services. The company's name-brand portfolio of quality assurance products include Brown & Sharpe, CogniTens, Leica Geosystems, ROMER, Sheffield, PC-DMIS, DEA, Leitz, and TESA. Hexagon Metrology has an unrivaled installed base of more than 1.5 million handheld, stationary and portable measurement devices, and over 30,000 seats of PC-DMIS metrology software.

More information is at www.HexagonMetrology.us

The company is a subsidiary of Hexagon Measurement Technologies, a business unit of Hexagon AB (Nacka Strand, Sweden), a publicly-traded company (OMX Nordic: HEXA B). The Hexagon group consists of nearly 8,200 employees located in 30 countries.

Press Photo: Hexagon Metrology Universal Jogbox