Two years ago, Process Engineer Bill Roberts and his team at Minnesota-based Roberts Automatic Products, Inc., were looking to improve the company’s statistical process control (SPC) and its overall data collection processes.

Within a metrology inspection environment, fixturing is a three-step process of positioning, locating and securing a workpiece within a measuring volume for inspection. 

Compared to CMMs and articulating arms, laser trackers constitute a fairly young technology. In use for about 30 years, these increasingly portable and flexible devices are known for measuring large objects by determining the positions of optical targets, usually spherically mounted retroreflectors (SMRs) that a technician holds up against the objects.

Despite the mountains of paperwork and sophisticated systems, occasionally a glitch makes all of that effort appear to have been a waste. It happens to the best of us with the only winners being therapists and system developers claiming to have the answers that will save us from a repeat in the future.

Simply put, product quality is always on the mind of a production manager. But what exactly characterizes a quality product? Is it when CMM inspection data reads good versus bad?

With its racing debut in 2016, Haas F1 Team is the first American Formula One team to hit the circuit since 1986. Founded by Gene Haas, the team is based in Kannapolis, NC. Haas is the founder of Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America, and he is the chairman of Haas F1 Team.

CMMs are vital measurement systems for many quality departments. Of the many active components of these systems, the software used to control and record the measurement of parts is critical to getting the most complete performance out of your machine. It is important to be diligent in your search for the software package that will best fit your needs. 

Surfaces are designed into products to reduce friction, “store” lubricants, provide a high luster finish or be the proper texture to hold paint (but not show the actual surface of the paint). 

The need for nondestructive evaluation on large quantity production components is becoming more achievable with CT technology due to the advances in machine hardware and processing techniques over the past few years.

To choose the right 3D surface measurement tool, an engineer must carefully consider the size of the object, the speed of the scan and analysis, and a customer’s tolerance requirements.