Software/Hardware Maintenance Agreement

My particular situation is all my CMMs work in cells which run the same part or 2 parts. So once I have a proven program and permanent fixture, I don’t have to mess with them other than the occasional hiccup here and there and it’s usually a hardware issue. Even the cal spheres don’t move. The goal was for the machinist to place the part in the fixture, click execute, scan the serial number and walk away. So there isn’t a need to renew the software agreements. If the software version is stable, why upgrade? We do renew the hardware agreement so hex can come and calibrate every 12 months and cover the cost and replacement of parts if needed. Currently running 454 SF 2016 , 2017 454 SF, 2016 Optiv, 2 tigos at 2018, 2018 454 SF and offline seat-2018.

Contemplating upgrading to 2019 for my 2 tigos and offline seat, I have til the end of the month to decided.

Let me add that we manufacture our own product line and we don't have customers with CMMs to keep the software up to date. I don't think there will be a time where management will say all the CMMs need to be on the same version.

We have 5 CMMs and 4 offline seats. While it's expensive to keep the SMA up to date, it would be completely prohibitive to try to update them all after several years. One year at a time is easier to swallow.

We don't upgrade with every years release, but we try not to be more than two or three years behind to be compatible with customers, vendors, and others we might need to share programs with.

Since 1997, I had both... This year (we're only in july ), our purchase department wanted to change the contract, wrote, re-wrote and re-re-wrote it, and I don't have any contract actually...
So I can't test 2019R2... Maybe after holidays ? or next year if they re-re-re-write the contract !

Why bother paying an enormous amount of money every year for a product that makes me want to bang my head against the wall? I have 2018R2 and it does what i need it to do. I don't normally have a need for contacting tech support as i kind of WAS tech support so...it all works out.

My machine on the other hand, yes i do pay for the HMA on that because if these things break they're not cheap to fix. Plus, the certification is included which is nice. My particular machine has a bumpy history but i think that may be do to the person who was programming it before me because since i have taken over it hasn't skipped a beat.

We have the SMA only. Is is very very rare for us to have a CMM issue. The software we like to keep up to date on (except 2018 R2, we skipped that one) and I like doing the technical previews.

How do you manage the cmm calibrations ?

We have the SMA only as well. Since hex will back charge for the years that you decided to not purchase the SMA, it just made sense for us to keep it up to date.

We contact the regional service office each year and schedule our calibrations directly through them.

Assuming mainly.

JK. We have a local CMM company that comes in and calibrates them.

If you have a local CMM company do your calibrations then they are not able to correct the error mapping. They can only do a B89 that only reports where the machine is from the factory specs. Not really a calibration in my book just a verification check. The only calibration that I will do is the ISO. Our tolerances are to tight to allow for any error. We need the best accuracy that we can get out of these BS CMM's

William, that's kind of what I was getting from it. I was talking to the tech last time because we occasionally play hockey together as it turns out. He said that if the error mapping is out, which they can see (he said), then we have to have Hexagon come out to get that fixed. I am going by what I was told by him and my boss. I am not in charge of calibration nor do I want to be. I have too much on my plate already.