Technical Notes: V38-Mount System

What’s a v-mount? If you aren’t familiar with v-mount, Schneider-Kreuznach makes the most popular and widely used v-mount system on the market today, the V38-Mount System. The system locks two units each with male and female v-mounts using three set screws that engage and lock into a V-groove. This groove and set screw mate to secure and align the two v-mount units. This works surprisingly well.

A couple of weeks ago I received a v-mount machine vision sysem and on this system I found something really interesting. I’ve never heard of or read this anywhere. The V38-Mount System was damaged in shipping at one of the male v-mounts so only one component broke in the system. In my case this was a 10mm V38 extension tube at the male flange.

These diagrams indicates the points of failure on a 10mm V38 extension tube. You can see the damage to the male v-mount flange and the deformed v-groove edge.

In this case the optical assemyby was damaged in shipping and judging by the two set screws that broke free, you can see the direction of the force that caused the v-mount to fail.

The v-mount break away design is genius. The break away feature will save you from multiple damaged system components. This 10mm extension tube was the cheapest part in the system and is the ideal place for any damage.

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