General Cybernetics Gets Financial Support to Launch Robotic Coordinate Measurement Machine
International Metrology Systems to market, distribute, and service RCMMs worldwide.
General Cybernetics Inc. (GCI; Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada), designer and integrator of machine and robotic control systems, will be receiving a $495,000 repayable contribution from the Canadian government for a project to develop the integration, production, and field testing of the Robotic Coordinate Measurement Machine (RCMM).
The contribution is being made under the enabling technologies category of the IRAP-TPC pre-commercialization assistance initiative. This is a joint venture that brings together the National Research Council's Industrial Research Assistance Program (IRAP) and Industry Canada's Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC). This program provides pre-commercialization assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises.
GCI has a sales and distribution agreement with global coordinate measuring machine supplier International Metrology Systems Inc. (IMS; Livonia MI) for the RCMM. Under the terms of the agreement, GCI grants IMS rights to market, distribute, and service GCI's RCMM worldwide, subject to minimum sales of US $1 million for the first 12 months after successful field testing, and US $2 million for each subsequent year, for a total value of US $9 million.
The RCMM is a shop-hardened coordinate measurement device that performs in-process inspection of welded assemblies such as dashboard frames, seat assemblies, and sheet metal parts. It lets the user monitor the welding process inline without having to sample parts in an offline QC environment. This eliminates the number of out-of-spec parts while waiting for QC to map trends using traditional methods.
With the RCMM, 100% part inspection is capable of up to 3,000 welded assemblies per day. The tool incorporates the firm's R5000 flexible open architecture Fuzzy Robot Controller, Virtual DMIS software from IMS, and the SK6 robot from Motoman (West Carrollton, OH). Virtual DMIS allows engineers from QC to easily move from the lab environment to the shopfloor without having to relearn another software package or programming language.
GCI designs and integrates machine and robotic control systems by combining the company's open-architecture PC-based control system with advanced human-machine interfaces, integrated manufacturing systems, and other third-party applications. GCI is a wholly owned subsidiary of World Wise Technologies Inc. (Markham, Ontario, Canada).
IMS is known for Virtual DMIS, its benchmark CAD integrated metrology software that integrates product design data within the quality control environment, as well as traditional CMM products. North American headquarters are in suburban Detroit and subsidiary operations are in Toronto, Canada; Swindon, England; and Seoul, Korea.