Providing CMM Inspection Services, Products And Support In Challenging Economic Times

WC.  In these tough economic times, what can a company like CMM do to help my company with my CMM inspection requirements?  Money is tight, we have many people on Workshare but we have several new projects on the go all that look promising for the future.

EF.  Although we are well known as a metrology sales company, many of our long term customers do not realise that we are the largest provider of CMM inspection services in Canada.

Our Measurement services group has the most comprehensive array of measurement products in the country.  Not only Coordinate measuring machines but vision systems, portable arms, laser trackers and a full suite of scanning products.  What this means is irrespective of your dimensional problems we have the equipment to solve any issue that comes our way.

WC.  That's great but what if I have a CMM of my own and I am short staffed in the CMM inspection department?

EF.  Regardless of the type of machine – Mitutoyo, Ziess, Wenzel, Brown and Sharpe or DEA we are able to provide operators or programmers to help.  This is also true for any portable systems such as Faro, Leica or Romer.  Several times in the past we have provided customers with a measuring machine and a programmer.  In fact we can offer a complete turnkey solution -   In other words, equipment and technical personnel.

WC.  CMM is based in Ontario, what if the job I need doing is in Winnipeg or  Vancouver?

EF.  We have performed measurement and staffing services all over Canada including Mexico, the USA, China and Europe.  Wherever the job is we have the equipment and the expertise.

WC.  What kinds of measurement projects are typically involved?

EF. I will give you four examples that typify the broad-spectrum of measurement issues we are involved in.

1. An aircraft manufacturer was having dynamic problems in flight - the wing position was suspect.  We digitized the wing to fuselage connection using our Leica Tracker and scanner.  Then together with the engineering staff deduced improper wing mounting relative to the CAD drawings. 
2. A Manufacturer of specialized machine tools asked us to help construct a large gantry machine.  Their original request was to provide them with alignment and squareness data.  Once on the job and the complexity of the project became apparent we soon became involved with the accuracy of the system.  The successful resolution of their machine build  came when we wrote a special error map that interfaced with the machine-tool controller and enabled the machine to perform to their customer's specifications.  This was a joint project between our service engineers, millwright's and measurement systems personnel.
3. An aftermarket turbine blade manufacturer was having difficulty with his sample to the customer.  It appears the customer was simply rejecting the part without offering any explanation as to why.  Using blade measuring software and a high accuracy coordinate measuring machine we deduced that the CAD data supplied to the manufacturer was incorrect.  Therefore, they were manufacturing a product that would never be accepted by the customer who was using the correct CAD data.
4. The medical industry also uses our services.  Probably the strangest inspection task this year was a request to measure a bovine pericardium (the sac that surrounds a cow's heart). Using our OGP vision system complete with laser probe we were able to supply the customer with full surface data, thickness data and area plus a complete three-dimensional CAD model.

So as you can see we are able to tackle anything.

WC.  The last one was impressive!  There are many companies offering contract inspection and CMM inspection services what's your secret of success?

EF.  It's not really a secret I do believe we are the best.  We have the finest equipment but it's our staff of expert Metrologists, Programmers, Millwrights and Service Engineers that make us what we are.   Our average employee has been with CMM over 10 years, and most came to us with 10 years experience prior to joining us.  It is simply what we do and all we do! As we like to tell customers we are The Coordinate Measurement Experts.

WC.With their depth of knowledge and experience Canadian Measurement Metrology is worth a second look for your measurement, CMM inspection services or reverse engineering projects.