Lou-Rich's decision to invest in a Rondcom emerged when the company received a manufacturing contract to build cylinder steering housings. The customer had manufactured the part in-house until it realized that an outsourcing partner could handle the job more cost-effectively. Lou-Rich was that partner, but it needed an inspection system that could measure the round part accurately and rapidly. Because of the part shape and function, accurate machining and inspection are critical. The part houses several other components, and tolerances as tight as 0.0003" are required.

Since adding the Rondcom, Lou-Rich has increased its inspection and analysis versatility, identified manufacturing improvement opportunities and added a significant source of new revenue.

"The Rondcom was truly an investment, not just a purchase," says Steve Seberson, Lou-Rich quality assurance supervisor. "And it really was customer-driven. In the past, we used a dial indicator to check run-out on some parts, but that didn't provide the range of capabilities we needed."

When Seberson made comparative evaluations, he found alternatives lacking in versatility and capability. "Other form inspection systems can only measure roundness or flatness. To meet the requirements for long-range capital investments, we need a system that is flexible, offers a range of features and is easy to use. The Rondcom measures roundness, perpendicularity, concentricity and coaxiality."

With the new system, Lou-Rich has found multiple ways to leverage its expanded form-measurement capability. Operators conduct inspections on a variety of additional parts, including quills used for vehicle axles and freezer tubes found in ice machines.

Strengthening its form-measurement ability also helped Lou-Rich identify a previously unrecognized problem area: surface irregularities. "Certain parts need to be clamped during manufacturing, which can leave indentations in the shape," notes Seberson. "The Rondcom enables us to identify parts being clamped too tightly, which causes the surface to be uneven."

Surface inspections also allow Lou-Rich to monitor and analyze tool wear. Operators perform first-article, in-process and final inspections on all product runs. Lou-Rich uses the Rondcom to analyze tool wear by searching for trends in parts that do not meet specifications. If a product falls out of specifications at a certain point after several in-process inspections, the manufacturing department checks tools for wear.

This high-precision component is just one of thousands of specialty tools and parts produced at Oberg Industries in Freeport, Pennsylvania, which specializes in precision machining, stampings, carbide and steel stamping dies, specialty tooling, plastic injection molding and container tooling, automated component assembly and metal stamping prototypes.

Oberg thrives on work that many other companies can't or won't perform due to extremely tight tolerances and production difficulty. To produce these components properly takes precision manufacturing and advanced metrology equipment.

Despite Oberg's manufacturing expertise, it had a problem with accurately checking the internal profile on a ground part. Initially, the company manufactured the part on a manual grinder. But to increase production, it custom-designed and built a special grinder and fixtures.

Oberg then needed a way to check the parts accurately. At first, it used a contour tracer, which was at another nearby Oberg division. This meant that employees wasted time traveling between buildings.

Although Oberg needed an additional contour tracer, justifying its purchase was difficult. "The company didn't want to spend more money for a contracer because they didn't think we would be able to utilize it enough to justify the cost," says Bob Binner, Oberg's group leader of grinding. "I looked at a couple of different ones and finally chose the Mitutoyo CV-500. It gave us everything we wanted at a price that no one else could match."

The equipment often finds use in evaluating manufacturing processes, developing new workpiece specifications and performing sophisticated contour/profile analysis of parts. It has a high-level digital contour/profile measuring unit with a digital scale on the Z-axis, which is an industry first for a general purpose contracer.

Mitutoyo's FORMPAK-1000 software measures the most complex geometrical contours traced by the CV-500. To measure a part, operators click on icons that guide them from setup to final measurement and report generation.

Most of the tolerances that Oberg works with are plus or minus one ten-thousandth of an inch. Occasionally, they need to hold 25 millionths (0.000025"), and certain applications hold a five-place radius, says Binner.

For precise contour/profile measuring, the CV-500 uses a high-accuracy digital glass scale in the detecting unit. It has a resolution of 0.000008" (0.0002 mm) for the Z-axis throughout the maximum 2" (50 mm) stroke, +/-1" (+/-25 mm).

The detector drive unit features ceramic guides over its 4" stroke. A linear scale offers 0.000002" (0.00005 mm) resolution along the X-axis.

The CV-500 also allows Oberg to measure one part or production batches automatically. Users can check multiple features at one time and perform contour tolerancing in order to check all the part's proportions in relationship to each other.

Fully automated measuring routines can be performed by manually "teaching" the contracer the first part's parameters and movements. The resulting part program may be recalled to automatically inspect all other parts in a batch on future production runs.

For one application, Oberg had to check thousands of stamped parts. The CV-500's automatic features with data collection and calculation helped the company save considerable time inspecting the parts, notes Binner.

Oberg also uses the CV-500 for reverse engineering. By checking the contours of a part, users can output the data to an IGES, DXF or CSV file. The data can be output in Mitutoyo's proprietary MES, or CAD and ASCII formats. Form measurements also can be converted to geometric elements in the CAD format.

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Schapals' quality control team faces the daunting task of accurately monitoring millions of small plastic parts every week, making sure the parts do not deviate from the original accepted color range provided by their customers. Until April 1997, the team relied on their eyes alone, using a time-consuming and imprecise process.

"We did all of our color testing visually, by scanning each sample from 18 inches for three seconds and comparing it to a master," recalls Schapals. "It was tiring and not very consistent, as different people tend to interpret colors differently. Colors must have concrete values to be repeatable, but we couldn't adequately quantify or define color differences with our eyes alone, so it was very hard to describe how much of a change had to be made without reference to spectrophotometric data."

The desire to improve the consistency and speed of their quality control inspection process led Courtesy to investigate colorimeters and spectrophotometers; however, they needed equipment that would allow them more flexibility than most lab-based machines.

Courtesy wanted something that could be used conveniently outside of a laboratory setting. "We wanted something portable that could be used right on the line, without having to take a sample back to the lab and shut down production while waiting for test results," notes Schapals.

His search led him to BYK-Gardner's color-guide Sphere, the first portable color analyzer to combine sphere and LED technology in a lightweight, handheld instrument. The portable instrument takes color measurements anywhere it can be carried, eliminating the need to transport sample materials to a laboratory for testing.

"We chose the color-guide Sphere for its durability and portability, says Schapals. "We use them right on the molding floor to verify that we use the same color from production run to production run."

Using the color meter instead of visual inspection, Schapals' quality control team can assign colormetric values based on defined standards required to quantify each color. They can now make quick and timely adjustments to their molders during production runs and eliminate costly product rejections. They also can compare current work to previous batches, ensuring long-term color consistency for their customers.

The color-guide Sphere comes with a computer interface that allows direct transfer of color data to Windows applications, where it can be printed or further processed; it requires no time-consuming, error-prone manual data entry. While other color instrument manufacturers usually require customers to use proprietary computer software, the meter can be used with BYK-Gardner's software or interfaced using standard software, such as Lotus or Microsoft Word. In addition, Microsoft Excel can be used to create spreadsheets, graphs and statistical evaluation. Additionally, the color-guide Sphere stores up to 999 readings.

"The ability to download color information saves us a considerable amount of time over manual data entry," notes Schapals. "By downloading data, we don't have to manually enter it, and, therefore, fewer mistakes are made. We download to PCs, which gives us long-term access to the data. By downloading data into a PC, I can go back to it months or years later and bring up a blue that has certain values. I can also assign a name or fingerprint that describes the color.

"Since we began using the meter, we've discovered many things about ourselves that have helped us to improve our approach to quality. It's the most compact package that gives us the most bang for our buck. We continue to recommend it to others based on our satisfaction."