Fond du Lac, WI – April 2, 2008 – Sheffield Measurement, a brand of Hexagon Metrology, Inc., today unveiled the new Sheffield Cordax Pioneer CMM.  Pioneer is an affordable, small, moving bridge CMM that is ideal for manufacturers purchasing their first CMM or for large manufacturing operations needing multiple CMMs with maximum price-to-performance ratio. Pioneer is available in four sizes with travels ranging from 600mm x 800mm x 600mm up to 800mm x 1200mm x 600mm.
The new CMM incorporates a Tricision slant bridge design feature providing a wider bearing separation, lower center of gravity, and lighter weight. This enhancement improves both accuracy and speed for shop floor measurement and inspection.

Another significant Pioneer design innovation is its highly optimized aluminum orifice air bearing system, which provides greater reliability and superior stiffness, especially when combined with precision machined dove-tail guide ways. On top of the new features, Pioneer adds a sturdy one piece granite table, Heidenhain high resolution scales, and micro-machined aluminum alloy X beam and Z ram construction. Like all Sheffield CMMs, Pioneer comes standard with PC-DMIS®, the defacto standard metrology software.

“Pioneer is reshaping the entry-level CMM market with design elements once only found on very high end CMMs,” remarked Sheffield Sales Manager, Steve Bjorkman.  “From the mechanical design, to the construction techniques, to the controller technology, Pioneer represents some of the best innovations from Hexagon Metrology wrapped up in a highly affordable package.”

Pioneer also offers a range of touch trigger probing options.  New Swiss-made TESASTAR® probing systems are being offered on the new CMM. The TESASTAR-m-m8, the new TESA® automatic indexing probe head, has all of the advanced design features of the TESASTAR-m, plus a direct M8 interface. The new TESASTAR-mp probe and TESASTAR-pr probe rack work together to provide easy automatic changing of magnetically coupled probe modules.

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.