Training Trends:
The use of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) has moved from the laboratory to the shop floor, and increasingly, from large factories into small job shops as well. As a result, there is growing demand for information on ways to evaluate the performance of CMMs, as an aid to making the best purchaing decisions.
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CMMs: The Drive for Communication
Incompatibility among different brands of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and other metrology systems costs American business an estimated $1 billion each year. But now, thanks to growing momentum behind an industry effort to cut down on CMM programming costs, factory executives are hoping to take a big bite out of that total.
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Gear Inspection for the Small Shop
Anyone who knows anything about gears knows that gear manufacturing is a specialty requiring a great deal of expertise and expensive, dedicated equipment. For this reason, most machine shops leave gears to the experts. But what does a subcontractor do when its customer needs it to make gears?
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Bottle Closure Capacity Increases With CMM
A full-inspection cycle that used to require an entire day now takes about 40 minutes to complete. Crown Cork and Seal Co. Inc. (Sandston, VA), a plastic bottle closure manufacturer, required a higher inspection speed to keep up with a doubling in demand for bottle caps from a major soft drink maker.
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Get Answers for CMM Calibration Uncertainty
If it were possible to travel back in time a few years and ask people working in the quality field about measurement uncertainty and accreditation, the response would be blank stares and puzzled faces. If the same questions were asked today, most quality professionals would understand the reference, but their faces still might reflect the confusion that surrounds these issues. The concepts of accredited calibrations and estimation of measurement uncertainty have made a significant impact in the dimensional metrology arena in terms of documentation, traceability and the need for more technical know how.
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See It. Measure It.
The late South African golfer Bobby Locke once said, "You drive for show, but putt for dough." He said this because putting can be the toughest aspect of golf. Even when everything is perfect, the golfer can miss. The golfer can factor in the speed of the green, wind conditions and amount of break. With a steady swing, he can bring the club back and forward and strike the ball true, but that doesn't guarantee the ball will go into the hole.
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CMM Arm Proves Specifications Are Correct
What does a contract manufacturer do when its biggest customer says its parts don't measure up? That was the question faced by Hughes Bros. Aircrafters Inc. (Southgate, CA). The supplier of compound-contoured sheetmetal details and assemblies to Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop, and other aerospace companies turned to Faro Technologies Inc. (Lake Mary, FL). Hughes Bros. purchased a FaroArm coordinate measuring system that it felt could produce the reports necessary to prove that the parts did, in fact, meet its customer's specifications. Hughes Bros. produces doorframe corners for the assembly of C-17s at Boeing's facility in Macon, GA. Mechanics had discovered a gap of approximately 0.1 inch between the rounded corners and straight sections of the doorframe.
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Probe has a soft touch
Measuring flexible or fragile parts with a coordinate measuring machine touch probe can be problematic because a simple touch can change the shape of the part--throwing off accuracy--or it may damage the piece upon contact. While some companies use non-contact methods to measure such parts, many companies want to reach the extreme accuracy levels that touch probes provide
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Invar Is "In" in Dimensional Measuring Machines
"Shop-floor CMM." The term is one of the hottest buzz phrases is dimensional metrology. But for a coordinate measuring machine to be truly shop-floor it must be able to withstand the heat and temperature changes found on the floor. Thermal expansion, the effect that temperature has on material at the microscopic level, can cause structural changes to a CMM at temperatures greater than 20 C. Depending on the factory's climate-control capability, temperatures from season-to-season can vary by 30 to 50 degrees. In addition to seasonal changes, day-to-day problems can affect measurement. Sunlight filtering through skylights or ambient-lighting windows can cause a machine to bend and can throw off measurements. Machine exhaust and heat generated by a machining center or boring machine can affect results. Temperature variations can creep in from nearby heating and cooling ducts, human body heat and even thermal memory from previous climatic environments.
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SPC for Nonstatisticians
A statistical process control (SPC) program is only as good as its data. Data can point out problems, tell their causes and how often they happen. Data can show how much variation is in the process, and when the process is out of control. It can lay the groundwork for action. To do all this, it has to be the right kind of data for the purpose. It has to represent the population it is supposed to represent, and it has to be organized. If the data fails these criteria, it can lead to wrong conclusions and the wrong type of action.
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Automated CMMs Help Build Best-In-Class Engines
International Truck and Engine Corp. (International)—the operating company of Navistar International Corp. and the world's largest producer of mid-range diesel engines—has achieved new levels of quality verification, system productivity and flexibility. By incorporating word-class equipment and processes, the company has gained valuable insight into finding ways to make its manufacturing processes more productive. The company is set to meet the needs of its customers and offer products with an edge over its competitors. Set on building the most reliable, best-in-class diesel engine, Inter-national remodeled its 680,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Huntsville, AL. Together with its sister engine plant in Indianapolis, International currently produces the next generation V-8 diesel engine for International brand trucks
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CMM Programming Saves Time and Money
By programming coordinate measuring machines offline, companies can improve machine utilization and increase part accuracy. The term “virtual“ has connotations of something in the future, but virtual programming of coordinate measuring machines is already here, and for many companies has been in use for many years. These companies have enjoyed the benefits of offline programming that include increased throughput and improved accuracy.
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Measurement: Get Precise with Optics
Optically scanning an entire surface takes into account surface information that is often overlooked by traditional methods. Measuring the form and finish of cylindrical surfaces used to require leaving key parameters unmeasured because of time and technology constraints. But with today’s optical equipment, an entire surface can be scanned and the data that was once overlooked can now be unearthed.
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Portable Arms Inspect Body-In-White
Saturn Corp., known for its no-haggle pricing, takes a no-haggle approach to the quality of its sheet metal. It’s done right. Period. At its Spring Hill, TN, plant, the company spares no effort to make sure the tooling, and the subsequent parts, are correct. The quality-assurance technicians on the maintenance teams in Saturn’s body systems fabrication unit have adopted state-of-the-art technology to inspect product and ensure this quality. This technology includes portable coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and inspection software from Romer/CimCore (Farmington Hills, MI) that compares the gathered data with the original CAD file.
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Multisensor Measurement—Making Sense of It All
Multiple capabilities add up to multiple measurements of complex parts. It has been common practice for manufacturers to have separate measurement machines that excel at particular measurements. Today, driven by both economic and technological forces, the best of class of traditionally separate technologies are combined in multisensor measurement machines.
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Probes Push CMMs Forward
Manufacturers’ demands for versatility, accuracy, higher throughput, greater point density and continuous operation have resulted in the development of coordinate measuring machine (CMM) probes designed for a range of applications. This means a choice of solutions for manufacturers. A number of new styli and probes for coordinate measuring machines have recently entered the market to help manufacturers improve measuring capabilities and overcome stacking, bending and other errors that can hurt the overall accuracy of the CMM.
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Lasers Keep Off-Road Seats on Spec
The use of laser scanning is helping to maintain the accuracy of foam seats used in personal off-road vehicles, making it possible to reverse engineer the delicate components with a high degree of precision. Northland Machine Inc. (NMI, Grand Rapids, MN) builds molds used to produce seats for all-terrain vehicles, snowmobiles and other personal off-road vehicles. The company found that it was difficult to accurately measure foam seats using contact measurement tools such as coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) or height gages because the probe depresses the foam and it takes too long to collect enough points to define complex contours.
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Quality Innovations: Noncontact CMMs Laser into 3-D
Since the 3-axis touch-probe coordinate measuring machine (CMM) and the 2-axis video CMM were invented, each style of machine has occupied its own gaging niche. But now, technology is beginning to blur these niches. Touch-probe CMMs were the ideal solution for inspecting formed, molded and machined parts. The touch-trigger probe or stylus transmitted X, Y, Z point data, which was then used to calculate solid or spherical geometries.
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Quality Innovations: Noncontact CMMs Laser into 3-D
Since the 3-axis touch-probe coordinate measuring machine (CMM) and the 2-axis video CMM were invented, each style of machine has occupied its own gaging niche. But now, technology is beginning to blur these niches. Touch-probe CMMs were the ideal solution for inspecting formed, molded and machined parts. The touch-trigger probe or stylus transmitted X, Y, Z point data, which was then used to calculate solid or spherical geometries.
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Machine Vision Goes Beyond Sight
Gaging the location of a car hood in a robotic workcell was the task of the machine-vision system. A car manufacturer had a requirement in which car hoods would be brought in for final assembly and 50 to 100 of the hoods would be stacked on rails. But the task wasn’t easy. Forklifts were used to load the hoods onto the rails, but they were not put in a reliable position for the robots to pick up. Each hood was at a different angle, each part slightly askew. Its precise location had to be found because of the tight tolerance required when loaded onto a metal fixture that readied the part for further processing.
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Re-engineering Gives CMMs More Sense
In a perfect world, or in a fully integrated manufacturing environment, metrology systems would be able to measure all necessary parameters in one pass, without error, and feed back results seamlessly to computer-integrated manufacturing networks, in the formats most useful for machine control and process management
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Direction vectors – programmable CMMs push the envelope
There is no more exciting measurement system gaining momentum today than CNC CMMs. More and more facilities are realizing how much time is saved by measuring a part while recording a PPG (part program) and then measuring the next 50-100 parts with the click of a mouse. The true phenomenon involved with these machines is not how fast they measure, but rather how precisely they can perform as compared to their predecessor, the manual CMM. This precision can be explained in 2 words—direction vectors.
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So what is the best sensing solution for your CMMs?
CMM technology has evolved during the past 30 years to meet the increasingly tighter tolerances demanded by today's manufacturing and design engineers. These accuracy demands, combined with the perpetual drive for increased inspection efficiency and throughput, have led to diversified sensing approaches on CMMs. This can lead to confusion about which sensing system is best for your shop's applications. Because a CMM represents a significant investment in capital equipment for large manufacturers and small job shops alike, it must be tailored to handle your specific needs while providing flexibility for growth as inspection demands change.
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GD&T Improves Inspection
A working knowledge of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) is necessary if engineers want to truly understand the designer’s intent, and therefore plan accurate and appropriate inspection of the product the drawing represents. As part tolerances get tighter and tighter, it’s more important than ever to establish a realistic, agreed-upon part drawing that subsequent inspections can be measured against.
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Make the Switch to Video
“If you can’t check it, you can’t make it,” says Marcus Young, president of AcuTwist (Ridgway, PA), a cutting tool manufacturer. Young spoke at the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2002 in September. He referred to the fact that unless he could prove his measurements, his customers were not likely to believe that he was making products to specification. When it comes to video measurement, one might be tempted to say, “If you don’t touch it, how do you know you checked it?”
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Are Three Sensors Better Than One?
In the past decade, manufacturers improved how products are designed, manufactured, tested and certified. One of the most significant developments has been the emergence of the flexible manufacturing cell as a preferred manufacturing technique for improving the quality and reducing the cost of critical parts. Flexible manufacturing equipment in a cell requires flexible, cell-capable measurement systems that can be used to adjust and verify setup, monitor relatively short-lived manufacturing processes and get the most out of increasingly tight part tolerance budgets. Perhaps the most flexible of all high-end measurement approaches is the use of multisensor coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) that incorporate touch trigger probes, vision metrology systems (VMS) and laser technology.
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Portable CMM Sorts Out Inspection Task
When Siemens Dematic recently set out to perform sample inspections on incoming AFSM base plates, it was faced with a problem. Siemens Dematics in-house coordinate measuring machine (CMM) did not have a measuring volume large enough to inspect the base plates, which are about 1.5 feet long by about 3 feet wide, says Michael Boss, quality supervisor
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Computer-Aided Inspection Promises Big Savings
A few months ago, if Rus Emerick wanted to inspect a manufactured part, it could take as long as three weeks and cost as much as $16,000. Today, he can do it in two days at little cost. Emerick, who is a staff designer at the Cedar Rapids, IA, plant of electrical products maker Square D, is using new software that combines the speed of noncontact 3-D scanning with a new level of simplicity for computer-aided inspection (CAI).
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Going in Reverse
As a technique for making products, reverse engineering used to be viewed as a not-so-ethical process of copying successful designs by OEMs but with less design capability than the originators. Indeed, 30 to 40 years ago, a number of noteworthy products were copied and produced, from complete aircrafts to motorcycles. But since then, reverse engineering has come to be viewed in a more positive light because it speeds up and simplifies many developmental procedures for OEMs. Today, it is in almost universal use because it enables OEMs to be more competitive across several disciplines.
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Close encounters with multi-sensors
Precision metrology, like other machine tool technology, has found a way to deal with complex parts more accurately. Multi-sensor machines use two or three synchronized instruments in one machine to gage, measure, and inspect a part.
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5-axis machine tool calibration
Volumetric and tool tip position measurement ensures accuracy Calibrating a 5-axis machine tool can be a very complex, time-consuming, and expensive process, especially when machine downtime and the cost of an outside service are considered. Even finding a machine tool service provider with the equipment and experience to perform 5-axis calibration can be difficult. However, for shops using 5-axis machining center tools and CMMs, especially for aerospace parts, calibration is essential, if not mandated by customers. We have developed a new calibration method, using Laser Doppler technology that reduces the complexity, time, and expense of 5-axis calibration. The portable equipment can be easily used by a machinist, as well as machine tool service technician, allowing a shop to purchase its own equipment and schedule calibration when convenient.
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In the Center of Things
It's hot. It's dirty. It's a through-feed production line and it's no place for a coordinate measuring machine (CMM). At least, not until now.
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Laser Measurement Takes Hold
In the early 1980's, North American automakers were feeling the effects of increased competition from their Japanese counterparts. Of particular concern to U.S. manufacturers was a perceived quality gap between U.S.-built cars and Japanese-made vehicles, which was driving more consumers to purchase imported cars. These trends spawned a renewed emphasis on quality in North American automotive production, at the same time that rapid advances were occurring in personal computers, lasers, cameras and image processing. When these areas came together to produce a new technology known as machine vision, U.S. automakers soon recognized its potential for use in improving vehicle quality.
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The Ins and Outs of Ballbar Calibration
Determining a machine tool's capabilities prior to post-process part inspection greatly reduces the potential for scrap, and can eliminate downtime spent searching for sources of errors. This is where a compact and portable tool known as a ballbar can pay significant dividends. A ballbar takes the guesswork out of machine tool evaluation, allowing users to quickly establish a performance level before the machine cuts chips. It can also serve as a valuable diagnostic tool when things go wrong.
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Technology modernizes CMMs
Coordinate measuring machines have progressed since their inception in the 1970s. Original machines were benchtop-mounted, cumbersome to use, and limited to five axes. In addition, some complex tube applications required two software programs for a complete set of measurements.
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Competition Rising in Portable CMMs
The U.S. market for portable coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) is beginning to heat up. Since the first portable CMMs made their appearance in this country about 15 years ago, the technology has been primarily associated with just a couple of vendors.
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Outside Expertise for Quick Certification
LK Metrology Systems Inc. (Brighton, MI), a supplier of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), was facing a new customer requirement. By early 2000, it was becoming increasingly clear that to avoid losing future business, LK would need to adopt a formal laboratory management system to support its CMM calibration services.
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Part-to-CAD Model Comparison Creates Savings
Measurement flexibility is important to Polaris Industries Inc. (Spirit Lake, IA), a manufacturer of personal watercraft, motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles. "Due to the wide range of vehicles produced at our plant, we needed a system that would allow us to quickly measure everything from the bearing fittings of the wheels of our motorcycles and ATVs to the boat hulls of our watercraft," observes Chuck White, a Polaris quality engineer.
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Quick Flat-Part Inspection Aids Sheet Metal Plant
Vermont-based Mack Molding recently moved into the sheet-metal fabrication business. Before the operation's first open house, however, manufacturing engineer Bill Kelley wanted to ensure that quality inspection was fully operational.
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Digital-Age Tool Helps Create Classical Sculptures
For more than 2,000 years, marble from the flanks of Mount Altissimo and other nearby mountains in the Apuan Alps of Tuscany, Italy, has been quarried because of its unique properties. When chiseled and polished, the stone captures light and reflects back eggshell and vanilla-colored shades. For this reason, sculptors (including Cellini, Bernini, Michelangelo and Donatello) have been using the marble for centuries.
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Wrapper Ties Robot to CMM
Integrating a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) into a robotic production line requires the various machines along the line to communicate with each other. A part has to be identified, the correct part program must be called up and run, and a decision must be made as to the whether or not the part meets tolerances. A simple job, perhaps, if a company makes one part and runs one measurement routine. But many manufacturers have hundreds, if not thousands, of measurement routines.
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CAD-Based Measuring Software Handles Large Complex Parts
Many CMMs today are outdated with respect to the needs of today's quality standards and production requirements. In most cases, the original CMM machine hardware has the built-in precision to accurately provide the ongoing sophisticated measuring demands. The problem is that the software and even most of the upgrades provided with the original machines may not be adequate. No longer do users merely want to know if a part is good or bad; they need information for adaptive and process control. They need to take measured data and integrate it with CAD data to compare the theoretical data with actual data
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CMM Saves Inspection Time
After seeing his quality manager complete another grueling 7-hour inspection, Rick Erickson, President of Wire-Tech, was thinking there had to be an easier way. A few months later he found that easier way with the help of a Starrett Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM). Wire-Tech, Inc. is a 10-person, 10,000-sq-ft EDM job shop located in Tempe, Arizona. The shop has 12 CNC machines. Eight of them are wire EDM and four are conventional. The shop's activity is split primarily between aerospace and plastic injection molding industry work. It handles the tooling function as well as (some) production.
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CMM Talk Spoken Here
Sharing CMM information online benefits all quality professionals. Various manufacturers' Web sites offer a plethora of information on their own coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and accessories. But few sites are available to address the concerns, experience and knowledge of the user community, where Web site visitors are encouraged to ask questions and share their CMM knowledge to benefit rookies and industry veterans alike.
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Ford Collects Multiple Data With Single Mahr System
Ford Motor Co.'s Prototype Transmission Facility in Livonia, Michigan, was looking for a way to collect several kinds of data with a single machine in order to reduce a backlog of queued part performance and manufacturing processes measurement. To achieve this goal, the company chose Mahr Federal's PRIMAR universal measuring system, which combines a precision four-axis CMM, a three-axis scanning probe, a form measurement system and a gear checker.
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Starved Assembly Lines? Not With This CMM
When General Motors Corp.'s Allison Transmission Div. (Indianapolis) began pilot production at a new plant in Baltimore early last year, the company encountered big problems with a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) used in its main housing and fabrication cell.
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CMM Maintenance Application Saves $500,000 Annually For United
To achieve optimum performance at 35,000', United Airlines uses CMMs to check a variety of airliner components from compressor blades to food service trays. At its Maintenance Operations Center in San Francisco, United employs five CMMs supplied by LK MSI (Brighton, MI). The machines, two G80C's, a G80K, and a G80-Upgrade, are essential to the inspection of engine parts, advises Art Mehlhaff, United CMM inspection coordinator and team leader.
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Taking Cost Saving Seriously
At this tier-one automotive supplier, cutting costs and improving productivity are everyone's jobs. BorgWarner Inc.'s Diversified Transmission Products plant in Muncie, Indiana, is full of cats-but not your ordinary, mouse-catching tabbies. We're talking cats with a capital C . . . and A and T. The letters are an acronym for the Cost Attack Teams that prowl every corner of the plant looking for ways to cut costs and improve manufacturing efficiency. The teams are a part of the plant's master plan for staying competitive as it begins its second century of service as a tier-one supplier to the automotive industry.
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The Quest for Open Systems
Some believe that true factory open-architecture computing may finally be just around the corner. No one doubts the enormous benefits that open-architecture computing holds for quality control systems and continuous improvement programs. Using an open computing network, a supervisory control system would be able to feed all production data directly into a database that anyone in a factory could access.
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3-D Measurements Solve Fit Problem
As consumer demands for convenience and comfort increase, many automotive interior components are becoming more complex. One example is the headliners used in minivans, which often combine functions of style, crash protection, comfort controls and passenger entertainment. The headliners used in Ford Motor Co.’s Windstar minivans are no exception. Measuring about 4 feet wide by 10 to 12 feet long, they come in a dozen different designs.
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Coordinate Measuring Machines
It's a bit inaccurate to call new developments in coordinate measuring machine technology "trends." Unlike your favorite suit or dress from 1985--which you'd likely never consider wearing again and have probably given to Goodwill by now--a CMM is not something you just toss out and replace as times (and fashions) change. In fact, once a new CMM breakthrough is introduced, it tends to stick around for the long haul.
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Harnessing The Quality Engine
Honeywell’s Phoenix aerospace plant uses a dedicated CMM to ensure quality and reduce costs in a high-volume manufacturing cell. During the heart-pounding seconds after an airline pilot guns his engines for takeoff, passengers are hushed by the extraordinary thrust that sends the jet hurtling down the runway. The modern jet engine is a technological marvel that generates its thunderous power by burning a mixture of compressed air and gas, then expelling this superheated stream through a relatively small nozzle outlet. As the engine’s basic operating principle illustrates, bottlenecks don’t necessarily represent obstacles to performance. Indeed, the point at which a process is most tightly constrained can sometimes hold the greatest potential for progress
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Good Parts, Good Measurements
A machine tool must be capable of generating both, says a software company with a new vision for the role of metrology data in the emerging era of globally integrated manufacturing enterprises. In the last 20 years, much has been said about the gap between design and manufacturing. Whereas design is about describing ideal parts, manufacturing is about making real parts.
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Leasing Metrology Equipment
Given the state of the global economy, few companies are anxious--even if able--to buy new equipment, especially an expensive new precision measurement system. However, this hasn't stopped technology from steadily advancing, which means the equipment a company is using today may be obsolete tomorrow, whether our economic future looks sunny or dismal and whether the company can afford to buy new equipment or not.
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CMM Meets Shop-Floor Requirements...
Machined parts are increasingly complex. Sophisticated computer-numerically controlled machinery has enabled manufacturers to build 3-D components with fewer individual pieces, which eases final assembly and increases product life.
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Job Shop Upgrades CMM With Measuring Software...
When Brad Myers was hired as the new quality manager for Brighton NC Machine Corporation (Brighton, Michigan), a large NC job shop that produces close tolerance components and assemblies for automotive, truck, off-highway and the aerospace industries, he knew that it was necessary to improve the operations' measuring quality and productivity.
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CMM retrofits and rebuilds: As Good as New?...
Upgrading your old coordinate-measuring machine may be an economical alternative, but is it really as effective as buying a new one?
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CMM Made Easy...
Machines with simple user interfaces that can work directly from CAD data files are expanding the metalworking industry's application of coordinate measuring.
Read Article: http://www.cuttingtoolengineering.com/article/viewArticle.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55

CAD to CMM: It's All in the Translation...
Software programs are helping metrologists at Tempress, BMW, Lockheed, and NASA accurately inspect CAD-designed parts.
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Plug-and-Play, the DMIS Part 2 Way
A new open architecture standard could reduce manufacturing process errors by using inspection results in real time. In the inspection workplace today, hundreds of different metrology applications and software tools exist that, at best, can only marginally work together and share inspection data. In addition, tens of thousands of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and other inspection machines on factory floors across the nation cannot make use of advances in software technology and standards….
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A Height Gage of Many Uses
Progressive Tool & Manufacturing Inc. (Greensboro, NC), a precision tool maker, is finding that customers are increasingly demanding shorter lead times. But at the same time, those customers are not willing to sacrifice quality. “More and more, our customers for a wide range of components are becoming concerned with quality, rather than price,” says Richard Thompson, a partner at the firm….
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Statistics Improve Quality...
Mercedes deployed Faro Technologies' SPC Process software to improve its auto body production line's quality control effort.
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Eying Optical Inspection...
From the components of our cellular phones to critical parts in the cars, trains, and planes we use for travel, to the construction materials of the buildings in which we live and work, we are surrounded by objects that were, at some point, measured.
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DMIS—Talking the same language. Tying CAD with CMMs...
Computer aided-design (CAD) systems and coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) have proved to be important assets in the production of large fabricated parts and assemblies. Both have contributed to improved productivity and quality in aerospace, automotive and other discrete-part manufacturing operations.
Read Article: http://www.manufacturingcenter.com/qm/archives/0102/0102meas_software.asp

Smart and flexible automated inspection...
When times get tough, you can either slow down and roll with it or get aggressive. To upgrade a manufacturing line for more flexibility during lean times, engine-component supplier DACO Inc., N. Aurora, IL, recently re- engineered a machining cell to integrate an existing coordinate measuring machine (CMM) with part-handling robots and six machining centers, automating the entire production and inspection process for multiple part numbers.
Read Article: http://www.manufacturingcenter.com/qm/archives/0102/0102automated.asp

Through Heat or Dirt and Dark of Night...
While a number of concerns must be addressed, many manufacturers have successfully moved coordinate measuring machines from the lab to the factory floor.
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Virtual Measurement...
A 3D CAD image of a cylinder head sits on the computer screen, a common tight-tolerance part ready for input into the CNC, then on to machining and finally to CMM.
Read Article: http://www.ndx.com/article.asp?article_id=291&channel_id=2

Opening Up Metrology...
In much the same way that Bill Gates' Microsoft Windows has been accepted as a standard operating platform for most PCs, Xygent, Inc. (Warwick, Rhode Island) hopes to use its suite of enterprise-wide metrology architecture and application products to integrate data from object measurement into the manufacturing process.
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CMMs Make Contact...
Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs) with touch-trigger probes have been common and effective measurement and inspection tools for many years. Touch-trigger probes, of course, function by contacting an individual point on the work-piece, then moving to measure the next point.
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Scanning CMM Gets Auto Parts To Market With Speed, Accuracy...
In the game of darts, the bull's eye is 4 cm in diameter. It doesn't matter where the dart hits inside the bull's eye—dead center, slightly to the left or right of dead center—to score points, as long as it lands within the 4-cm circle.
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Articulating Arm Cuts Complex Parts design from Weeks to Days...
The arm and its associated software are uniquely designed for precise measurements and comparing them with CAD file specifications to spotlight out-of-tolerance conditions. (Lots of good CMM news stories here but you will have to search "Article Archive" under Measurement/Inspection/Test The arm and its associated software are uniquely designed for precise measurements and comparing them with CAD file specifications to spotlight out-of-tolerance conditions.
Read Article: http://www.modernapplicationsnews.com

FaroArm measures up to Volvo's large parts...
Measuring large parts accurately is a challenge in the contemporary manufacturing community. Perhaps in no other area is this more true than within the off-road heavy equipment industries, where a single part can measure 10- feet by 15-feet or larger.
Read Article: http://www.manufacturingcenter.com/qm/archives/0801/0801vol.asp

Invar Is "In" in Dimensional Measuring Machines...
"Shop-floor CMM." The term is one of the hottest buzz phrases is dimensional metrology. But for a coordinate measuring machine to be truly shop-floor it must be able to withstand the heat and temperature changes found on the floor.
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The Quicker Inspector. New CMM comes with its own computer system...
A North Carolina shop checks a variety of milled, turned and round parts. It has greatly improved process control and cut its inspection costs by about $25,000 a year. This improvement comes as a result of upgrading to a manual coordinate measuring machine (CMM)--specifically Mitutoyo America Corp.'s M-507 CMM.
Read Article: http://www.manufacturingcenter.com/tooling/archives/0701/0701sft.asp

CMM Ownership: Avoiding Hidden Costs...
Your CMM will cost you more than you think. Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the coordinate measuring machine, it has proven its worth in countless applications worldwide, and is now an essential part of modern, quality-driven manufacturing. However, to get maximum value from your CMM--and the production systems that rely on it--you need to understand the long-term cost factors associated with ownership, and then use that knowledge when making a purchase.
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Calibration vs. Certification...
Although it is widely known that manufacturers of quality parts re-quire the use of coordinate measuring machines (CMM's) to ensure part accuracy, it is not as clearly understood that a calibrated CMM is not the same as a certified CMM.
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Bottle Closure Capacity Increases With CMM...
A full-inspection cycle that used to require an entire day now takes about 40 minutes to complete.
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CMMs: The Drive For Communication End users are demanding a standardized CMM language.
Incompatibility among different brands of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and other metrology systems costs American business an estimated $1 billion each year.
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New CMM Enables Reverse Engineering and Accurate Die Tooling...
Progressive Stamping Inc. is a supplier of stampings and stamping assemblies to the automotive, truck and bus, and other demanding high-volume, high-tech industries. As part of its continuous improvement program to provide extensive inspection, tool qualification and reverse engineering capabilities.
Read Article: http://www.qualitydigest.com/june01/html/apps.html

Software Helps Automaker Speed Inspection...
Lotus Cars, based in Norwich, United Kingdom, is world-renowned for creating award-winning sports cars at the forefront of vehicle design technology. To improve the efficiency of its inspection routines, Lotus has adopted Delcam's PowerINSPECT inspection software.
Read Article: http://www.qualitydigest.com/june01/html/apps1.html

CMM Sharpens Machining Business...
F&G Tool and Die, a small, family-owned machine shop in Dayton, OH, is one company that sees use of new technology as a path to success in today's manufacturing market.
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QC Software Cuts Inspection Time 80%...
Two major limitations often make digital inspection systems impractical on the shop floor: they're slow, and they tend to get beat up by rough handling.
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Precision Achieved With CMM...
Precision is the name of the game for most manufacturers. For LaVezzi Precision (Glendale Heights, IL), a contract manufacturer of high-end metal products, achieving precision of the parts it machines is essential to the company's success.
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