Case Study

Software Retrofit Soups Up CMM Capabilities

Source: Edison ESI, a Southern California Edison (SCE) Company
Read how Virtual DMIS measuring software from International Metrology Systems is boosting CMM capabilities for a California-based inspection and reverse engineering firm.

Edison ESI, a Southern California Edison (SCE) Company (Westminster, CA), an ISO 9002 registered company that offers first article inspection services and dimensional data gathering for reverse engineering for the aerospace, automotive, petroleum, utilities, and other industries, was looking to expand its CMM capabilities.

A division of Southern California Edison, the firm works with many Fortune 500 companies and is considered a leading West Coast contract inspection facility. It provides authorized training in Catia CAD/CAM software and offers Catia users the opportunity of supplying CMM inspection programs generated from their native Catia CAD models.

Recently, the company retrofitted its DEA Delta gantry-style CMM with Virtual DMIS CAD-based measuring software from International Metrology Systems Inc. (IMS; Livonia, Michigan).

"We selected Virtual DMIS because it is perfectly matched to the needs of the type of work we perform for the aerospace and automotive industries. Having the ability to generate inspection data directly from an imported CAD model is paramount to the expediency and accuracy of our service," explains Larry Kuehn, Edison ESI president.


The DEA Delta Gantry CMM housed at Edison ESI is Boeing-volumetric certified and its calibration is traceable to NIST.

Combining Software and CMM
The CMM delivers accuracy of 0.0002 in. over the entire measuring 150 × 100 × 100 in. measuring envelope. Previously, there were occasions where the company couldn't inspect without a 3D model.

Thus, Virtual DMIS was chosen to enhance the DEA Delta gantry machine's capabilities. It provides these features:

  • bi-directional data transfer between CAD and CMM
  • accepts nominal surface model data from CAD data
  • error calculations with respect to patch, curve, or trimmed edges
  • graphical representation of actual vs. nominal data
  • automatic alignment and best-fit routines
  • reverse engineering data with the ability to export CAD directly
  • generates 2D sections from 3D surfaces

"Of course, the ease of use and the incredible editing capability that doesn't impact other programming is of particular benefit to our technicians," says Kuehn. "For once, you can actually understand and determine what DMIS code is really saying. When programming directly in Catia, for example, we utilize the Vector Drive software module to generate directly native DMIS code to run on the gantry CMM. We can program and measure at an unrivaled pace with the installed complementary software tools."

More Retrofitting to Come
In addition to the retrofitted DEA CMM, Edison ESI operates an offline seat of Virtual DMIS and intends to retrofit more of the five other installed CMMs it operates.


This screen shot from Virtual DMIS shows a part being measured, the fixture, and CMM structure and probe.

According to IMS, there are all types of CMMs in operation worldwide that are out-of-date with respect to the needs of today's quality standards and production requirements. In most cases, however, the actual machine hardware has the built-in precision to accurately meet ongoing sophisticated measuring demands.

Virtual DMIS software can be used to upgrade any make, type, or size CMM. With the power of PC-based 32-bit technology and the latest software development tools in CAD and CMM industry standard, it enables seamless collection, analysis, visualization, and communication of quality data throughout the manufacturing enterprise. The software also provides graphical programming, intelligent measuring, surfacing, pictorial output and SPC, fully linking 3D CAD data with the CMM inspection process.

For more information, contact International Metrology Systems Inc., 37100 Plymouth Rd., Livonia, MI 48150 USA. Tel: 734-591-3800.

Edited by Nancy Katz