All Features
NIST
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Finally, an optical frequency comb that visibly lives up to its name.
Scientists at the University of Konstanz in Germany and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the United States have built the first optical frequency comb—a tool for…
Rickard Lindhé
ABB of Västerås, Sweden, is a pioneer among world industrial robot manufacturers when it comes to using laser-based measuring technology to ensure robot precision. ABB, with an installed base of 125,000 robots, stands out as the world’s largest in the arena of industrial automation. And Leica…
Metris
As Europe sets ambitious targets for energy that is clean and inexhaustible, wind energy is predicted to meet approximately 25 percent of Europe’s power demand within 25 years. Today’s wind turbines measure 70–150 meters and feature bladed rotor diameters of 100 meters or more, translating into a…
Dave Maxham
A joint project of NCMS called Volumetric Accuracy for Large Machine Tools (VALMT), partnering Automated Precision, Boeing, Siemens and Mag Cincinnati, has pioneered an innovative process and established new methodology in volumetric error compensation for large machine tools. Volumetric error…
Steve Arbogast
A quality management system is a framework of processes and procedures that are used to ensure that an organization can fulfill all tasks required to achieve its goals, strategies, and objectives.
The majority of businesses around the world have some sort of well-defined quality management…
Miriam Boudreaux
When you think about equipment that is used for measuring and test activities, you think about important equipment that is used to pass or fail product but may not necessarily see its correlation with a supply chain. However, this very equipment—whether it is calibrated in-house or off-site—does…
GKS Global Services
In this case study of reverse engineering and rapid prototyping we will look at a company that developed an initial prototype of an anti-snoring device based on many years of research in the field of dentistry. The company’s main dental advisor is a pioneering dentist in the research and…
Miriam Boudreaux
If you have ever found equipment that is out of calibration, then you know it is not something to take lightly. Whether you manufacture children’s toys or automobile tires, you know that the implications and ramifications of the decisions you make can be devastating for your company. Although the…
Patrick Lanthier
There are several challenges that can arise when you start the process of measuring micro and meso scale parts. Some important factors to consider before you begin the actual part measuring are: part handling, cleaning, and fixturing. Using a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) allows you to …
Alex Lucas
Top-100 automotive supplier, Kautex, relies on Metris XC50-LS Cross Scanner on LK CMM to verify the production quality of composite fuel tanks. Kautex engineers set up and execute automatic measurement routines that speed up the serial inspection process for fuel tank by 30 percent. Incorporating…
Chris Hardee
As moviegoers, we have all seen a wide range of animation—from early Disney features, such as “Snow White,” to Japanese anime, and Pixar’s “Toy Story,” to an assortment of recent blockbusters that seamlessly integrate animation with real actors. With each release, the movie magic gets more amazing…
Fluke Corp.
I
n process manufacturing, temperature uniformity is essential. Technicians rely on monitoring of all kinds, from fixed mount sensors to hand-held thermal imagers to track the condition of product and critical equipment. That’s because temperature measurement and control is one of the single…
FARO
Rocky Mountain Hydro Electric Plant is a pumped storage facility located in the Appalachian mountains of Northwest Georgia, approximately 62 miles from Chattanooga, Tennessee. The facility is co-owned by Oglethorpe Power Corporation (75%) and Georgia Power (25%), with all operations and…
If ever there was an industry in which time compression is the name of the game, it’s Formula 1 Grand Prix motor racing.
Scuderia Toro Rosso, owned by the Red Bull Co., is among the Formula 1 teams looking for new and better ways to compress development and production times, while increasing…
Bill Kalmar
The band “Chicago” sang those words about "time" decades ago. The second line “Does anybody really care?” seems to sum up what is still in vogue today, especially in the workplace. Just as with vacations where workers are reluctant to leave for fear that someone will discover that their job is…
Developing and refining the advanced processes for its manufacturing and assembly operation is no small task for Irvine, California-based Coast Composites Inc. The company makes large, precise tooling for the aerospace industry. The scale and accuracy requirements of their product creates quality…
Mobile 3-D-measurement technique ProCam for bus manufacturing
A vast number of varieties, multiple special customer requirements and a low level of automation are significant for the manufacturing of passenger busses. An automated control of individual parts and complete vehicles as part of the…
Greetings to all! Welcome to the eighth edition of CMSC World, the electronic counterpart to the The Journal of the CMSC, the official print publication of the Coordinate Metrology Society (CMS). This edition comes as the 25th anniversary of the CMSC is still fresh in our minds. Held this year in…
T
his article describes a new solution for precise automated digitalization of large objects. The practical application is carried out with the help of a standard (imprecise) industrial robot, a near range on-line photogrammetric system and a 3-D White Light Scanner. The tracking system…
Belinda Jones
Robert James had what it takes to start a manufacturing company focused on oil-free air and gas compressors—history, expertise, and the willingness to take a second chance on a business he knows well. Nearly 40 years ago, his father William James, began producing oil-free air compressors under the…
Andreas Eberhard
Modern equipment can be sensitive to brief disturbances on utility power mains. Electrical systems are subject to a wide variety of power quality problems that can interrupt production processes, affect sensitive equipment, and cause downtime, scrap, and capacity losses. The most common…
William Tandler
Formatting constraints prevent us from formatting this article in a way that might make it easier for the reader to understand. If you have problems understanding the web version of this article, download a pdf by clicking here.
--Editor
1. Introduction
In March 2009 the ASME released a new…
What does an innovator do when existing methods of calibrating a critical environment pressure sensor are cumbersome and produce shoddy results? Richard Deyoe and Stephen Stout, ASRC Aerospace meteorologists based at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, decided to design and build their own calibration…
Alex Lucas
For decades, traditional touch probes on coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) have been the gold standard by which parts have been inspected and verified. However, this time-consuming process becomes an even bigger drain on a quality department’s valuable resources as the parts it is charged with…
Aaron Sabino
The aerospace sector has the most stringent quality standards in the world. The big name manufacturers and their suppliers are constantly adapting new technologies to speed up inspection while maintaining tolerances that are tighter than most other businesses. With laser trackers becoming smaller…