Inspection & Quality

An interview with Nikon's Corporate Vice President Tadashi Nakayama provides insight into the strategy of the firm's Industrial Metrology Business Unit, of which he is deputy general manager. In particular, he explained the company's strategic focus on Quality 4.0, where digital, automated and connected inspection enables complete process control from design through manufacture.

The requirement for strict specification and acceptance of all automotive parts and components has greatly increased in recent years. Screw thread inspection is no exception. The common practice of eddy current probes, lasers, proximity sensors or vision systems are only partly successful as they only inform you of the presence of a thread, not if it's correct or within tolerance. The unique low-cost SMAC solution enables you to automatically check various screw thread parameters.

Mitutoyo America Corp. announces the release of the new M2 2D Processor. The M2 2D Processor will be available as part of a new package with the PH-A14 comparator.

ZOLLER Inc. welcomed more than 150 visitors to its premier 2-day Open House & Innovations Days event, which took place on June 19th and June 20th at the company's new North American Headquarters and Industry 4.0 Tech Center, in Ann Arbor, Mich. Apart from offering customers, partners, suppliers and the press the opportunity to tour the new state-of-the-art building, the key focus over the 2 days was demonstrating ZOLLER's 'Smart Factory" Solutions. The solutions, including tool presetting and measuring, tool inspection, software and automation solutions, offer seamless connectivity at each stage of the production process. ZOLLER's innovative, Industry 4.0 solutions allow significant time and cost savings for companies of all sizes in diverse industries.

Zoller Inc. hosted its open house and Innovation Days event June 19-20 at the tool presetting and measuring equipment manufacturer's new facility in Ann Arbor, Mich.

It is certainly not news that, more and more, dedicated gages are being placed at the point of manufacture. Tight-tolerance measurements that were once performed in a semiclean room by a trained inspection technician are now being done right next to the machine, often by the machinist. But just because shop floor gaging has become commonplace, doesn't mean that just any gage can be taken onto the shop floor. To assure good gage performance, there are a number of specifications and care issues which need to be addressed.

BIG KAISER Precision Tooling Inc. has added the Dyna Contact to its product offering. The ceramic taper gage allows inspection of machine spindle tapers at a glance.

Marposs has announced the availability of its Mida Laser 75P Hybrid tool setter that combines a noncontact laser and touch probe in one system. While the laser enables measurement and checks on high-speed rotating tools, the laterally mounted touch probe monitors nonrotating, lathe tools.

Uniform color means high quality and therefore is an essential QC criterion. The spectro2guide spectrophotometer from BYK-Gardner represents the next step in the evolution of color measurement.

QVI (Quality Vision International) announces its newest precision optical instruments for measuring shafts and other cylindrical parts – QVI TurnCheck. QVI TurnCheck systems address the major sources of measurement uncertainty found in shaft measurement today, by focusing on advanced optics, thermal stability and ease of use.

Mahr Inc. has partnered with the University of Rhode Island's (URI) engineering department to offer students the opportunity to work on real-world engineering and manufacturing problems. As part of the URI capstone project, students in their senior year are selected to take part in a year-long capstone project focused on automation of submicron precision finishing of ring gages.

Kwik Mark Inc. offers the KM-1207 benchtop dot peen marker, with a large 12" x 7" marking area to suit most industrial marking applications. It can engrave on materials ranging from hardened tool steels to delicate plastics.