Custom Engineering is a quality-driven fabrication and machining company located in Erie, Pennsylvania. They specialize in medium to heavy fabrication and contract machining. As their name implies, they enjoy the challenge of “custom” jobs, and they have always invested in the technology needed to complete these jobs on time and on budget.
But Custom Engineering was faced with a problem. They needed to measure large baseplates fabricated from structural beams along with plate steel with machined flatness requirements and multiple hole locations. The largest of these baseplates is 39 feet long by 15 feet wide. Traditional measuring methods just couldn’t provide the accuracy and detailed inspection reports that their customers required.
The solution they chose was a portable coordinate measuring machine called the FARO Laser Tracker. It allows them to inspect hole layout, flatness and location, along with other difficult inspection routines, simply and precisely. Its long range is also ideal for inspecting the large parts.
“Fabrication layout time with the FARO Laser Tracker is taking roughly half the time it used to take with traditional methods,” commented Dave Guriel, Quality Manager at Custom Engineering. “The old method required roughly 6 hours, but with the Laser Tracker we can complete this same measurement in 2.5 to 3 hours.”
