ALPHA STATUS Gives Inspect X Added Capacity For Diverse Measurement Jobs
Inspect X was formed in 1996, and during its short history has become the largest independent contract inspection facility in the Windsor, Essex County, area. Since its founding, the company has served more than 200 distinctly different customers, all of which have come through referrals. They are currently registered to ISO 9002 and are working toward achieving 17025 laboratory status.
"You can imagine the diversity of parts that we see," said Barry Marontate, Inspect X President. "Most of our customers, however, are suppliers to the automotive industry and require inspection of molds, fixtures and parts. We do a lot of capability studies, analyze the data and provide PPK values."
From the outset, Inspect X specialized in using coordinate metrology to provide customers with accurate dimensional analysis. Barry Marontate was introduced to coordinate metrology while serving his tool and die maker's apprenticeship and volunteered to become a CMM operator. His brother, Brad, was involved in quality assurance and understood the value of CMMs.
"We believed that the independent inspection market was a growth area and decided to start our own contract inspection company," Marontate said. "Both Brad and I felt that coordinate metrology offered the most flexible approach to dimensional measurement and afforded us the best capability to handle a diversity of parts."
Starting Business with a Bang
The company's first CMM was a large, rebuilt Ferranti with a measuring envelope of 78" X 48" X 36".
Fate intervened in the start-up. During installation, just minutes before the calibration of the Ferranti was complete, lightening struck the outside of the building, sending a ground surge through the CMM and destroying the CMM's controller.
"That was our introduction to Brown & Sharpe," Marontate said. "Our insurance covered the cost of a new Sharpe 32 controller and we were able to add PC-DMIS™ measurement and inspection software with the Curves and Surfaces module. That combination virtually gave us a new CMM."
As the business grew, the company added more equipment. In 1997, Inspect X installed a used Brown & Sharpe DEA GAMMA 2203, which they retrofitted with PC-DMIS software and also purchased an optical gaging system to measure parts too small for the CMMs. In 1999, Inspect X added a Brown & Sharpe DEA GAMMA 0102. The company has also recently installed a Brown & Sharpe ORYZO horizontal arm CMM with a 2.44 meter vertical measuring range to handle large workpieces.
Adding More Capacity
In September 2001, the company installed a new Brown & Sharpe DEA ALPHA™ STATUS™ coordinate measuring machine with a 2500 mm X 5000 mm X 1500 mm work envelope to augment its extensive CMM capability.
The ALPHA line of cost effective medium capacity gantry CMMs combines high throughput and high accuracy with improved operating reliability and reduced maintenance. Despite its large measuring volume, ALPHA features a volumetric measuring accuracy from 6 + 7 L/1000 µm.
Its rigid lightweight main carriage is built using Brown & Sharpe's patented Slant Bridge Technology®. The ALPHA has a "seagull wing" configuration that maximizes beam and carriage height from the floor for enhanced operator safety, and lowers the center of gravity of the moving members for higher dynamics and more precise operation. The large cross section Z spindle of the ALPHA STATUS guarantees dynamic stability and provides support for horizontally extended tooling without degradation of accuracy. Machine movements on all axes are monitored by high resolution Heidenhain scales.
A wide variety of electronic switching and analog probes, index heads and automatic probe changers make ALPHA CMMs suitable for high accuracy inspection of large workpieces pieces and for scanning the surfaces of large models. Inspect X operators use a PH-10M probe on the ALPHA STATUS to collect dimensional data by scanning. In some cases, the company is asked to collect data to be used to create a CAD file of a particular part for reverse engineering.
The ALPHA STATUS, like the company's other CMMs is controlled by PC-DMIS software. "The CAD interface capability of PC-DMIS has helped us build our business," Marontate said. "On average, 85-90 percent of the work that comes in is accompanied by an IGES file, and we're able to create our part programs from that."
Marontate said they selected the ALPHA STATUS because of its capability to handle large, heavy parts. "We've turned away some business that was too heavy for the machines we had. Now we can accept work up to 30,000 pounds," Marontate said. "We also get a lot of fascias and instrument panels to measure, so the larger machine made sense," he said. "Originally we looked at a three meter machine, but the price differential between the three and five meter machines was so small that it made sense to purchase the five meter machine so we won't be limited in the future."
The ALPHA STATUS is installed on a special foundation in a new 5,000 square foot facility the company built during the summer of 2001. The new building is designed strictly for measurement, according to Marontate.
For example, the truck bay is built so that it is totally isolated from the shop so that a truck can be backed into the building and the outside doors shut. A retractable roof and interior doors allow an overhead crane to remove workpieces from the truck. When crane access is not required, a side zip door that opens at 17" per second allows quick forklift access.
"The bay is like a large air lock, it doesn't allow any air to get into the shop. In many facilities, the inspection room is separated from the larger shop. Our entire shop is a CMM room," Marontate said.
The working area features two dedicated heating and cooling units, one of which has two cooling compressors to ensure constant room temperature. The walls and ceiling are insulated to R20 and the floors are covered with VTC tile for easy cleaning. The entire floor base is 8" concrete with all air and electrical lines installed below the surface. Electrical outlets use isolated ground receptacles to eliminate noise in the lines. Special 1,000 watt halide lighting illuminates the entire facility.
For added good measure, the company installed a surge protector to guard against lightning strikes.
"Even though our first lightning strike worked out to our advantage, we don't want any more," Marontate said.
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Brown & Sharpe, Inc.