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Departments: Quality Applications
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Cognex Corp.'s Checker 101

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FARO Technologies' FaroArm

Digital Precision Simplifies Custom Motorcycle Manufacturing
FARO Technologies' FaroArm

For decades, custom motorcycles consisted mostly of one-off bikes, modifications of Milwaukee or Tokyo iron with welded-up handlebars and extended forks. Most of these choppers were assembled in a garage or backyard, where fabrication adhered to the rule of the "military-fine-adjustment" tool: If it doesn't fit, use a bigger hammer.

Today's custom-bike industry has a very different approach and is driven by craftsmen who specialize in form without shirking function. Orange County Choppers of Montgomery, New York, may be the perfect example of this new breed of entrepreneur.

Image aside, these are serious motorcycles. Because the machines that OCC produces are created from the ground up--not modified--the geometry and dynamics of the bikes are fully in the hands of the builders. Axle alignment, chassis balance, torsional stiffness, suspension alignment--all have to be right to allow a rider to tackle winding roads without winding up in the ditch.

To make all the elements work, OCC has raised the bar of technological sophistication in the chopper business. It's not that a hammer can't be found in its shop, but the builders now spend more of their time with computer-numeric controlled (CNC) machines, computer-driven tube benders and other digital-driven fabrication systems, such as measuring arms that act as intermediaries between designer and hardware. All of this makes the fabrication process more accurate.

Never making the same bike twice has its price, however, and as OCC builders long ago discovered, crafting a motorcycle is a three-dimensional problem. A fender may look like it belongs on Ben Hur's chariot, but it still has to fit the frame-mounting points of the motorcycle exactly if the visual effect is going to be right. The problem is even worse for gas tanks. One of the classic hurdles is getting a gas tank to fit properly over an arched frame that is, itself, part of the aesthetics of the total motorcycle. The gas tank is a welded sheet metal part that has been sculpted, ground, polished and then painted with a thick lacquer. The result is a beautiful, high-gloss finish that gleams but is brittle. Assembly by pounding is not an option because it can crack the paint.

The company now uses FARO Technologies Inc.'s FaroArm to digitally re-create the exact space required by complex parts. The FaroArm's free-turning joints articulate over the full reach of the model to measure points with an accuracy to 0.0005 in. As points are measured, the image of the surface is re-created on-screen by the FaroArm's software.

On a gas-tank-to-frame fit, the shop uses the FaroArm to develop a digital image of the frame where the tank will fit. This becomes a template for forming the underside of the tank. As the tank is formed, the FaroArm becomes a dimensional check-tool, enabling the builder to fabricate the tank so that it matches the digital image created earlier.

Occasionally, a fender is so unusually shaped that it needs to be modeled so everyone can participate in the design. Once the designers freeze the shape, it is digitized in a few minutes with the FaroArm, and then the shape file is transferred to OCC's CNC equipment for forming.

In addition to simplifying fits between tanks, frames, fenders, oil coolers and seats, the designers at OCC check the alignment of critical dynamic parts such as axles, forks and sprocket drives. Using the FaroArm to digitize the axles, the builders can check parallelism in a matter of minutes. By simply tracing around both sprocket faces, the instrument captures each surface, and the relative position of each is displayed on the Arm's companion laptop.

"I must say I was impressed," says OCC artist and designer Jason Pohl. "The FaroArm has given us big-time flexibility when it comes to working up a design or modifying one as we build it, so now we can build a bike a lot faster than we could before."

FARO Technologies' FaroArm

Benefits:

  • Measures in hard-to-reach places.
  • Accurate to 0.0005 in.
  • Point-cloud information available immediately
  • Quickly checks alignment and parallelism

www.faro.com