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| GeoNews - March 2007 |
Edition 2007.2 |
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| General News |
| Helmel Engineering incorporates
the Digital I/O into the Microgage! In February, Helmel Engineering installed a production floor friendly Microgage into a wire EDM production cell. Utilizing the Digital I/O option, the Microgage communicates with a robot for an automatic inspection sequence in the fast pace world of high volume production. The Microgage and robot communicate to each other through a PLC. When ready for an inspection, the Microgage informs the robot the loading of the inspection part can safely take place. Once the part is loaded into the CMM, a safety flag is set to ensure the robot can not interfere with CMM operations. The inspection program is automatically loaded from a table of choices, and the inspection tales place. Upon completion, the CMM informs the PLC on the status of the inspection and the robot is free to retrieve the part. Helmel Engineering has been installing CMMs in production cells utilizing Digital I/O communications since 1997. |
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Precision Grinding Helmel Engineering has promoted "Intrinsic Accuracy" of its CMMs since the first CMM was built in 1973. Today, our CMMs are built with the same dedication to accuracy that has made it world renowned for endurance, ease of maintenance and shop floor applications. As a quality driven company, we try to control the manufacturing process of all critical components. In some cases some components of a CMM exceeded the capacity of our machine shop. Building a 80" or 100" CMM meant we had to contract out the final grinding of the main guide. This often caused quality problems since most grinding houses were not accustomed to grinding a long rail with the exactness required for CMM operations. To overcome this problem, Helmel Engineering invested in an Okamoto PSG-308 grinder capable of 132" x 30". This allows us to control the complete grinding process on all CMMs that we manufacture. For our smaller CheckMaster and Microgage CMMs, this also allows us to grind the mating rails in one setup. The main rail, which controls the Y-Axis movement and straightness and the outer rail must be absolutely parallel to ensure proper 3-D accuracy. The purchase of a grinder of this size to manufacture a small number of components per year can not be justified in pure dollars, but in terms of quality control it was a small price to pay. |
| "Time to calibrate
your CMM" Calibrating your CMM is an essential component to keep your inspections accurate. Only a factory calibration will ensure your CMM is operating at it's most accurate and trouble free operation. Not all calibration firms have the capacity to calibrate your CMM properly. Contact our service department at (716) 297-8644 or request information here. |
| Geomet Tip & Tricks |
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Projection Errors Projection Errors often introduce a bias into the expected results during the inspection process. Please check here for a case study and a suggested method to correct projection errors. |
| Need Help or
Suggestions? To help you to learn about the power of Geomet, we are launching a series of tutorials and programming examples. Do you need a specific example? Please submit to us a request to include a tutorial or programming example in future GeoNews editions. |
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Helmel Engineering
Products Inc. |
 © 2007 Helmel Engineering Products, Inc. |
Phone: (716) 297-8644 |