Scanning capacity doubled

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Laser Scanning has doubled throughput on contract inspection and reverse engineering and can now measure parts five times bigger, including JCB engine blocks, thanks to a new CMM from LK Metrology.

The new LK machine, the company’s second, is a 20.12.10 ceramic-bridge CMM with 2,000 x 1,200 x 1,000 mm working volume.

When Laser Scanning's managing director Johnathan Rigby started the company in September 2016, he brought the original machine with him from his previous employer, PMS Diecasting, Rotherham. This firm now subcontracts much of its metrology requirement to Laser Scanning, both firms being members of the Glide Group, along with plastic injection moulding specialist Loadhog, toolmaker GoTools, and wire joining and tensioning product manufacturer Gripple.

As the inspection provider's name implies, most data acquisition is by laser scanning on both of the LK CMMs as well as on two articulated arms supplied by Nikon Metrology. All of the equipment is housed in a temperature-controlled room held at 20 ± 1°C in the Chapeltown facility. Parts delivered for inspection are acclimatised in the same room for 24 hours to reduce measurement uncertainty.

Three types of non-contact sensor from Nikon Metrology are in use on the CMMs: an XC65D cross scanner and line scanner models L100 and LC15Dx, which respectively have 13.0, 6.5 and 1.8 µm measuring accuracy. The latter provides performance equivalent to tactile probing, which is also utilised by Mr Rigby and his team for capturing physical dimensions, such as hole diameters, using a TP20 touch probe and an SP20 scanning probe, both from Renishaw. A changing rack mounted on the CMM table allows automatic sensor exchange within an inspection cycle.

The order for the larger machine was prompted by a contract from JCB Power Systems for the quality control (QC) of cylinder blocks and heads for the engines that power the OEM's off-road vehicles. JCB has its own LK machine equipped with a touch probe that serves the production line in Derby. Laser Scanning assists by providing measurement and inspection of goods-in to the plant, where it has a QC engineer permanently stationed.

Additionally, the Chapeltown-based company helps out with preparing CMM programs and proving them out, as well as inspecting prototypes to support JCB's research and development department. Especially for the latter purpose, the service provider is able to furnish much more comprehensive and accurate information about a new component than is possible using touch probing techniques at JCB Power Systems.

Although the engine plant does have laser scanning capability on an articulated arm, the level of detail that can be acquired is less, as its scanning resolution is 23 µm, much lower than the best CMM-mounted scanner in use at Laser Scanning’s offices in Chapeltown. In any case, inspection using an arm would be a manual process and almost impossible to replicate on subsequent occasions, whereas running a program on a CMM is automated and highly repeatable.

Mr Rigby explained, "By working with JCB's Inspection department and R&D team, we have been able to free up our customer's machine to concentrate on production QC. They also appreciate the greater detail we are able to provide about new prototypes, as laser scanning allows us to show them the form of a component as well as supply measurement data.

www.laser-scanning.co.uk

www.LKmetrology.com

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