5-AXIS MEASUREMENTS THAT BOOSTS INSPECTION
K&G Manufacturing from Faribault, Minnesota, USA prides itself on meeting specifications on mission-critical components on time for their customers. Because of this dedication to quality and customer satisfaction, we are delighted with our partnership with K & G and their experience with our CMMs and software. Starting with OpenDMIS software on a used machine and an LH 87 in 2010, K&G has been a longtime customer. Overtime though, needs changed and investment in more productivity was the next needed step, so in 2017 K&G put their first REVO into production equipped on an LH 1210. This machine provided a boost to inspection capabilities with its larger measuring volume, and the flexibility that only REVO and 5-axis scanning can provide.
Considerable time savings with REVO at a LH CMM
But as is often the case, customer demands continued to grow, giving K&G the opportunity to add a second LH REVO in 2021. Driven by high demand for a single customer part, the need for this machine was proven out through time studies that showed the productivity a second REVO could bring, while still having capacity for future needs.
“Considerable time savings has given us increased capabilities to measure in modern methods. The substantial throughput advantage gained by adding the new LH Standard 12.20.10 system is especially evident when inspecting the “fin” blade because the REVO probing provides much faster inspection than any other probing configuration on the market.” – Brad Holloway, K&G Mfg, Senior Account Manager
Converting all machines to WM | Quartis Software
Case study scenario:
If we measure 1000 parts, K&G can do this in 118 hours on the REVO machine in comparison to 236 hours on the PH10 SP25 machine. If CMM operator rate is $20/hour, this will result in a $2360 cost savings on every 1000 parts measured. On top of that, an extra 118 hours is freed up to focus on other tasks. These cost savings make it possible for K&G to be more profitable with each job and affords the option to reduce costing for their customers or be more competitive on future bids.
“K&G is currently using OpenDMIS software on all of our CMMs and will be converting all machines to WM | Quartis software in
2021. Quartis’ ease of use and simple program creation has given our programmers great confidence in their abilities moving forward. K&G believes we can create and modify programs quicker and with less clicks than ever before, allowing our offline inspection team to substantially improve programming efficiencies, completely freeing up one of our originally dedicated programmers. This is another cost-savings advantage that will have a direct impact on our bottom line.
The ‘cherry on top’ with the WENZEL solution is having SPC capability built into Quartis. K&G has previously relied on a 3rd party SPC software provider which is no longer required. Having this tied into our CMM software allows us to analyze statistical data more regularly, eliminating a significant amount of rework by accurately forecasting tooling changes.” – Eric Gustafson, K&G Mfg, Chief Operations Officer
Measuring more parts faster with WENZEL America. Follow us on LinkedIn and Facebook for relevant metrology news.