Upgrade From Manual CMMs Results in More Throughput

Today, CMMs are a mainstay in most job shop businesses. It's the best way to prove out and insure the highest level of quality, and a necessity if ISO certification is to be obtained.

Avans Machine & Tool, a family-owned, precision machine shop in Scottsboro, AL, is typical of the thousands of similar job shops that are sprinkled across North America. Avans is a 35-man shop that specializes in CNC turning, 4-axis milling, and 3D machining of parts and components for aerospace, defense, automotive, medical, pharmaceutical and textile industries. Parts are manufactured in both small and large quantities with a range of short and long-term delivery schedules.

Lawrence Ariel, quality manager for Avans explains, "As a precision machine shop, meeting our customers' needs are simple – be professional, be fast, be accurate and be competitive. What we were finding, however, is that our manual CMMs began to negatively affect our ability to be fast, and we knew that it would ultimately cost the company existing, as well as new business."

Ariel adds, "I generally knew what we needed to upgrade our CMM capabilities. It was going to take a couple of DCC CMM machines with varying work envelopes and a common comprehensive software package that our technicians as well as machine operators could be trained on easily. In a job shop environment, workflow can be enhanced when machine operators can periodically check the parts themselves."

Ariel explains how they initially made some inquires with CMM manufacturers. Xspect Solutions, the North American representatives for Wenzel CMMs, was the first company to respond. Keith Mills, Xspect Solutions president, put Ariel in contact with a number of companies with Wenzel machines located near Avans Machine & Tool. They visited those facilities to evaluate the Wenzel equipment and talked to the users. "We were immediately impressed with the robust construction of the equipment, and in particular with Wenzel's use of all granite construction. In addition, the users we talked to were very pleased with the OpenDMIS software, primarily because of its broad capabilities and ease of use. OpenDMIS has full CAD capabilities allowing the CMM to be an integral part of the manufacturing process – permitting the generation of inspection programs before manufacturing is performed. With the OpenDMIS Xecute Interface unskilled operators can be quickly trained to operate the machine. In addition, with the OpenDMI QuickMeasure feature, operators have complete hands-free inspection from the PC. Quick Measure utilizes the software's intellect to determine the feature type under measurement and allows for rapid part inspection without the traditional tedious need to instruct the software as to what to inspect next. The part is simply probed and OpenDMIS does the rest.

"We ultimately decided on a Wenzel Smart and a Wenzel LH8.10.7 machine." The Smart machine has a measuring range of 500mm x 450mm x 400mm, and the LH 8.10.7 has a measuring range of 800mm x 100mm x 700mm.

Each of the machines is equipped with the industry standard Renishaw TP200 probing system and offers volumetric accuracy of 2.5µ with a maximum 3D measuring speed of 700mm/sec, with maximum acceleration of 2,000mm/sec2.

Ariel notes, "There were a couple of other unique options that we just had to have. For example, the HT400RC wireless teach pedant is an amazing feature. It eliminates the tedious keyboard interaction necessary with conventional CMM teach pendants. With just one joystick, it basically has everything you need right in your hand. Programmable fast and slow modes, function keys for probe index, go-to and point record, individual axis locks, even an emergency stop switch. It allows you to walk around the machine and get your face right in there without having to determine the orientation of the pendant control. Also, when I saw there was a probe change rack that could be mounted right on the granite table, I had to have that as well. It really helps to save time in setup."

Ariel concludes, "The whole customer/supplier experience working with Xspect Solutions was first class. We're very satisfied with quality and performance of the Wenzel equipment, and the software training process provided a very smooth integration into our manufacturing process. We're confident now that we have CMM capability for our current and future needs, and the ability to have timely software upgrades that can be conveniently and cost-effectively downloaded to the OpenDMIS software."

Xspect Solutions Inc.
Wixom, MI
XspectSolutions.com