PROBING FOR ANSWERS

Advances in on-machine measurement technologies have helped this aerospace supplier realize a full and quick return on investment.

Express Manufacturing (Acton, Ontario) is a rare find – a job shop that can do it all, quickly and with great quality, for customers in all sorts of industries. Specializing in 6061, 2024 and 7075 aluminum, heat treated and mild steel and even wood, the shop concentrates on jobs with smaller quantity outputs. Their job scope affords them the opportunity to do what they do best: work quickly and affordably with accurate parts and technologies.

With a primary focus in the aerospace industry, particularly the entirety of front and main landing gear, Express Manufacturing often inspects bearing for aircraft control surfaces with tolerances from ±.0003 in to .0001 in. Hand tools such as calipers, height gauges and micrometers are often appropriate for simple geometries and measurements, but are generally not accurate enough or dependable enough to be used on the complex shapes the shop inspects every day.

Though Express gets the most from their Mazak Nexus VCN-410A vertical machining center and Colchester A90 CNC lathe, these machine tools usually require a part to be removed while in-process if it is to be measured accurately. The problems inherent with these moves are obvious – they’re time consuming, expensive and inconvenient. Worse yet, it’s often impossible to set a part back into a machine, after it’s been measured, in the same located position prior to the move.

Instead, the shop sought a way to accurately measure the parts they produce while still on the Mazak or Colchester. The ability to do so would expedite the manufacturing process, improve quality and reduce downtime. On-machine inspection allows machine tool operators to quickly and easily inspect parts directly on the floor while the part is being machined, resulting in tighter tolerances with fewer errors and rework.

A thorough comparison of different solutions led Express to select a GagePlus portable coordinate measuring machine (CMM) from FARO Technologies (Lake Mary, FL). Like their fixed counterparts, portable CMMs are accurate – up to .0007 in for the Gage, for example. Unlike fixed units, portable CMMs are designed specifically for use on the shop floor. Smaller and more flexible devices measure parts and assemblies directly while on the machinery producing them, improving consistency and mitigating measurement error.

The Gage permits Express to generate automatic reports, including SPC analysis and GD&T, that help them ensure accuracy. “On-machine inspection is where portable CMM technology shines. It really helps us a lot,” notes Eric Wenger, the owner of Express Manufacturing.

The shop has also realized other benefits to having their own portable CMM on the floor. They have since reverse-engineered bagging hooks for Roxul insulation – curved components that would have been impossible to measure without a CMM – and have been able to verify the quality of parts they’ve been making for years. “The portable CMM changed a five-week job into a three-week one,” said Wenger. “We have saved about $15,000 so far in the year we’ve had the Gage, and this figure would be much higher if not for the rough economy. I project that we’ll save about $25,000 to $30,000 a year in a normal economy.”

Wenger added, “The portable CMM is a great selling feature for us when people come to see our shop. Customers like the fact that it is used on the floor, and we always make it visible when they come.”

Express Manufacturing, 13026 6^th Line, RR 1 Acton, Ontario, Canada L7J2L7, 519-853-8508, Fax: 519-853-8509, express@xplornet.com, expressmfg.com.

FARO Technologies, 250 Technology Park, Lake Mary, FL 32746, 407-333-9911, faro.com.