Importance of Inspection

In order for manufacturers today to be competitive and reduce costs, it is critical for them to find production mistakes before their customer does. An article in Quality Magazine recently detailed this point.

One of the first things that companies need to do is change the way they think about inspection. It can no longer be seen as an “expensive, complicated and time-consuming operation that limits their profitability”. Years ago that may have been the case, but advancements in technology have brought high-tech inspection methods to the masses and have made it both easy to use and affordable.

The earlier a problem is discovered, the more money is saved. If the product is too far along in the manufacturing process, more re-work will need to be done, taking more time and resources. Also, the part may even be at a point where it would need to be scrapped, and the process would need to start over.

One of the advances in inspection technology is the development of portable CMMs (coordinate measuring machines). While fixed CMMs have been used for decades, many times they are not the most flexible solution. It can take a considerable amount of time (especially for larger parts) to move the part to the CMM. For many manufacturers, portable CMMs are preferred as they enable you to get the high accuracy inspection results, but with the flexibility of being able to measure “in situ” directly on the machine producing the part.

Read the entire article

Read a white paper on portable CMMs