Quality Magazine - March 2009 - (Page 60) CA SE ST U DI ES Cole Manufacturing began using the Platinum FaroArm as a way to eliminate the use of hand tools. Source: Faro Technologies Inc. Measurement Possibilities ole Manufacturing (West Bend, WI) has stayed at the forefront of changes in the tool and die industry, specializing in metal stampings, fabrications, weldments and assemblies. The company’s main priority is meeting the tooling needs of its customers while maximizing efficient material use. This mentality is evident during the part-design phase, continues through prototyping and on to actual production. On a daily basis, Cole’s quality assurance team, led by Quality Assurance Manager John Berst, measures or inspects various parts ranging from fabricated weldments, stampings and stamping-die components to tooling fi xtures and computer numerical control (CNC) stamped tubes. The Portable C quality assurance team was measuring these parts with an assortment of hand gages, height gages, large verniers and even tape measures. This hand-inspection method presented several problems. Traditional tools could not cover the entire measurement range Cole needed, and were simply not accurate enough. These tools also did not have the capability to interface with computer-aided design (CAD), which limited Cole’s reverseengineering options. began using a Platinum FaroArm to complete fixture verifications with accuracy comparable to a stationary CMM. However, unlike a fixed CMM, the arm occupies minimal f loor space and eliminates the need for dedicated CMM rooms—leaving more room for production. The arm reduced measurement and inspection times, simplified design routines and ultimately improved Cole’s products and processes. The arm also eliminated the old days of taking parts to fi xed CMMs and writing manual measurements taken from calipers or micrometers. Cole employees can take the device directly to their parts and collect measurement points with the click of a button. The quality control personnel guide the arm’s touch-probe along the surface of the object to be measured. The points are directly recorded via CAD software programs, including the Faro CAM2 Measure X used by Cole. A laptop computer simultaneously illustrates the 3-D measurements onscreen and automatically records all data. It creates a 3-D model of a part or machine component, making it an allin-one portable tool for performing inspections, tool certification, CADto-part analysis and reverse engineering. Cole knew the arm would provide the simplicity and accuracy it The Platinum FaroArm can perform inspections, tool certification, CAD-topart analysis and reverse engineering. Source: Faro Technologies Inc. ELIMINATING HAND TOOLS At a previous job, Berst had used portable coordinate measuring machine (CMM) technology, specifically the FaroArm from Faro Technologies Inc. (Lake Mary, FL). Thus, Cole BENEFITS Jobs that used to take Cole Manufacturing four hours to complete now take 45 minutes or less with the use of the Platinum FaroArm. Cole estimates that after using the arm for two months, 100 hours of work time have been saved. Cole can use the arm for performing inspections, tool certification, CAD-to-part analysis and reverse engineering. 60 QUALITY | March 2009 www.qualitymag.com http://www.qualitymag.com
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