Inspection & Quality

Marking a component, even with something as fundamental as a serial number, is a basic and necessary part of manufacturing. Product marking has recently become more important for reasons of traceability, ensuring that components in the field can be replaced quickly and easily.

Wheeling, Illinois – SMW Autoblok, which focuses on the design and manufacture of rotational chucks, stationary workholding, tooling and custom-engineered solutions for the machine tool industry, announced that Shaun Thomas rejoined the Wheeling, Illinois, company as technical operations senior manager.

Exsys Tool Inc., the exclusive importer of Eppinger toolholders, adapters and specialty products, celebrates its 25th anniversary this June. For a quarter-century, Exsys, San Antonio, Florida, has served as an industry-leading supplier of CNC tooling and tool holders, including innovative products like the Preci-Flex modular toolholding system and a wide range of high-precision live and fixed toolholders for turning centers.

The L.S. Starrett Co. has introduced a newly designed rotary table springs force tester. The system is setup to test multiple springs in a single setup without the need for additional operator input as required when springs are tested one by one. The batch testing volume production approach saves time and significantly increases test throughput, while freeing up the operator to attend to other jobs.

Marposs has announced the availability of its Aeroel MecLab.X laser micrometer systems, providing ultrahigh accuracy diameter measurements for components such as electric motor shafts, gage or piston pins, hydraulic components or any number of ground or turned parts. The benchtop Meclab.X systems require no PC, making them highly suitable for the workshop environment and for most common applications.

Materialise Group spin-off RapidFit has deployed a horizontal-arm coordinate measuring machine manufactured by LK Metrology in Derbyshire, U.K., to check the accuracy of bespoke gaging and holding fixtures produced for the automotive industry.

Mitutoyo America Corp. announces the release of the new M2 2D processor as part of a new package with the PH-3515 Profile Projector. The M2 2D processor updates the PH-3515 Profile Projector with a new touch screen tablet and easier 2D processing for measuring dimensions.

Originally called a grave, meaning heavy, learn more about the history of the kilogram.

Of unique importance today is the role of post-process metrology to validate the integrity of AM builds. One specific reason for this importance is that many parts produced by AM end up in safety critical applications where end-use functionality is of vital importance. The nature and relative roughness of AM surfaces, whether analyzing individual layers within a build, or the surface of a finished part render conventional metrology solutions somewhat impotent. In this article, I review developments from Zygo including work alongside Richard Leach that allow for hitherto unattainable metrology results, which are being used to enhance the use of AM as a production technology by making validation protocols more efficient.

Heidenhain introduces a new mid-range high accuracy ring encoder that is suitable for position measurement applications that require high tolerance to contamination but do not demand the accuracy level of an optical encoder. This unique ERM 2203 is optimized to meet those needs and is a welcome alternative to the market.

Marposs has announced its new Artis GEMDS system, which uses data from a noncontact eddy current sensor to provide real-time monitoring of spindle elongation on machine tools due to temperature changes or other causes of displacement. By detecting spindle anomalies in real-time, shops can prevent damage to the machine and avoid out of tolerance components, thereby reducing scrap and improving productivity.

Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence division launched the RS-Squared Area Scanner for the Absolute Arm – pairing for the first time an area scanner with a portable measurement arm. Designed for high-speed scanning of simple shapes and surfaces, the RS-Squared can measure parts faster than conventional laser scanners and even other structured light scanners.n