Damaged CMM Machine

Can't see too clearly in the photos. Not sure how, but it looks like the rail was moving up or down in Z and grazed along something. I have never seen this happen where I work. I'm fairly sure if you put slight resistance on it you'll get an error. Maybe something fell against it while it was doing a move. Maybe shipping damage. Is your facility the first owner of that CMM or is it refurbished?

Hi William, I too have never seen this happen. We bought a facility and the CMM machine came with it. I assumed either the machine rubbed on something causing the initial damage and it slowly got worse or it was forced to move with minimal/no air pressure. I take really good care of my machine so I'm not entirely sure. We have yet to start it up I wonder if it will home like that.

Working on getting some better pictures

Your company might have just inherited a brick.  The second pic shows a darker spot dead-center in line with the scrape. 

I'm guessing something really heavy fell upon it and dented the ram, producing raised surfaces that weren't corrected.  They kept running the machine, and the machine's air bearings probably went haywire trying to ride over the raised edges, producing the other scrapes. 

Once that anodized finish is worn out... there's not much that can be done to get it back online. 

Maybe Hexagon can replace the entire ram assembly and air bearing pads... but it's not going to be cheap.  We had an old DEA Scirocco which was run on low air pressure (switch wasn't appropriately adjusted to shut off when lower than 65psi), it ate the x axis bridge, and we actually had hexagon come out and stick the proverbial first nail in the coffin.  There was nothing they could do to repair the x axis, but maybe they CAN work on the ram, since it's so common and small.

Here's a better look at the damage, it's in pretty rough shape :( 

uuf, yeah, that is FUBAR. And, if you did manage to get it to power on and home, continued use of that machine will absolutely compound the damage and cost (if repairable at all).

Imagine that being a bent valve on a motor.  Yeah it might run with a little tick, but eventually it's going to eat the lifter up, then the cam lobe, then the engine.  Get Hexagon out to assess if it can be fixed at all, now, before it gets worse!

Ya it's sad to see, I will contact Hexagon to see what they have to say. I just wanted some feedback as I'm sure some people on this forum have come across situations like this before. Thanks for responding Louis :) 

Have you taken that cover off to see if anything is rubbing on it?  It doesn't look like something fell on it, more like something is scraping it. Perhaps color it in with black marker and move it up and down to see if the marker scrapes off?  

Unfortunately, I don't have access to the machine. It's in a different country but the bosses were looking for some sort of clarification on what could have happened. We will have to wait for Hexagon to come in and give it a look over. Thanks for your suggestion.

It looks to me like the airbearing either has not had pressure or the orifices in the bearing are blocked and this is where the air bearing runs.

If there was any dirt in there (what caused blockages maybe) this could have repeatedly rubbed and removed the annodising.

If there are no high spots, once the airbearing is cleaned/replaced, it should still function although not ideal.