Gaging System Cuts Costs
This article looks at one shop that adapted the idea of finding savings in its inspection operation and has seen a production cost reduction of 27 percent with 100 percent inspection.
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Many shops look at inspection and quality assurance as non-value-added costs designed to simply verify that parts were made correctly. While that may be true, shops that look at the gaging station as a source of cost savings, parts must be verified anyway, can find value by applying an efficient inspection system to their process.
This article looks at one shop that adapted the idea of finding savings in its inspection operation and has seen a production cost reduction of 27 percent with 100 percent inspection. It’s success in achieving zero scrap has led to key industry approvals by becoming a preferred supplier to Rolls-Royce and BAE Systems.
The company, High-Tech, based in the U.K., won a contract for one of its aerospace customers that demanded 100 percent inspection of precision milled, titanium parts. The company selected the Equator from Renishaw as the inspection station because of its speed and its small footprint as well as being able to operate on the shop floor.
The system can gage about 150 features including bores, thicknesses and form measurements on parts with tolerances of plus/minus 25 microns. Its inspection time is slightly less than the machining time so the production process runs continuously.
Installing the quality, production-driven inspection system has helped High-Tech find savings where they didn’t expect it. Click here to read “Quality Gaging System Cuts Production Costs.” :
