The acquisition of Jenoptik (Jena, Germany)'s non-optical process measuring technology business for grinding machines, formerly known as Movomatic, has been announced by Marposs, a market leader in measurement, inspection, and testing technologies. Movomatic was formerly known as Marposs. As a result of this acquisition, Marposs will be able to maintain consistent service and support levels at its locations in Peseux, Switzerland; Ratingen and Ludwigsburg, Germany; and Ratingen, Switzerland. This will be accomplished by taking over the facilities, management, and employees at these locations.

After having been discontinued after its acquisition by Jenoptik, the Movomatic brand is making a comeback to the industry courtesy of the efforts of Marposs. At least for the foreseeable future, dedicated market strategies will continue to be maintained alongside an autonomous approach to the various customers. Evaluation of possible future technical integration between the product lines, including combining Movomatic measuring solutions with Marposs wheel balancing systems and sensors, is going to take place. This is one example of a possible future integration between the product lines.

Portable coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) that pinpoint and record the location of a probe and record the results through software are referred to as 3D measurement arms. These arms, which are also referred to as articulating arms, have another name.

These arms measure the location of a probe by utilizing encoders, which are specialized glass parts. They can be as tall as twice that, though the average height is between 2 and 6 feet. On the other hand, shorter arms have a tendency to improve accuracy and precision. These arms typically come equipped with six axes of rotation and have the ability to encompass a wide range of motion.

When it comes to shopfloor CMM inspection, ease of use is of the utmost importance.
This manufacturing company in San Diego uses equipment from Keyence to streamline its inspection procedures, which results in fewer errors. Despite the availability of a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) at Flying J Machine, company President Jay Hegemann found himself in a difficult position."With CMMs, there's usually just one guy who knows how to run it," he says. "But that's not always the case.""And unless you have a large shop where it's being used all the time, I think the majority of CMMs end up like mine — expensive dust collectors," the author continues.

When Mr. Hegemann got an email about Keyence's XM series handheld probe CMMs, he paid extra attention to it given that this was the reality for his shop. Following the presentation of a product by an expert that Mr. Hegemann requested, he placed an order for an XM and, ever since then, has been enjoying the perks of a more streamlined inspection process. This is the shop floor at Flying J Machine, and the XM series can be used by machinists right next to mills to perform quick spot checks or comprehensive inspections of the parts they are working on.

Since the year 2000, Flying J Machine has been operating as a business. The business is located in Escondido, California, and it has nine workers, a floor space of nearly 8,000 square feet, and several different pieces of cutting-edge machinery. This includes a number of CNC machining centers and lathes manufactured by Haas, as well as laser cutting equipment manufactured by Mitsubishi, a small-hole EDM, and a wire EDM. Oceanographers receive the majority of the shop's output, which consists primarily of instruments that measure various aspects of water; however, the shop also serves customers in the semiconductor, communications, and defense industries.

Mr. Hegemann is self-taught. While Mr. Hegemann was still in his early 20s and working in the father's small product development company, cmm services he was successful in persuading his father to purchase a CNC knee mill. After reading the instruction manual for the next half a year, he started developing prototypes for his father. When a nearby company approached him with the idea of machining some components, he jumped at the chance. Since then, he has struck out on his own and is continually expanding the capabilities of his growing company. Despite the fact that he frequently has to stay up all night in order to master a new skill or machine tool, he has since gone out on his own.

There is No Necessity for Training
The CMM is an example of such a capability that should be considered. According to Mr. Hegemann, the issue with that apparatus is that it operates with PC-DMIS, which is a system that must be learned through a significant amount of instruction."So you send someone out to class thinking that they'll train other people when they get back, but then that person quits, or if he does train other people, those people use it so seldom that they forget how," he says. "So if you send someone out to class thinking that they'll train other people when they get back, you're going to be disappointed."

As a result of this, it was essential for Mr. Hegemann to locate measuring equipment that could be utilized by anyone and did not require extensive prior training nor did it require complicated programming. Mr. Hegemann had a keen eye for quality, so he didn't need much convincing when Keyence's neighborhood XM specialist brought the system in for a demonstration."The signs were all there," he says. "It was obvious.""The XM is quick, accurate, and straightforward to operate. That same day, CMM Inspection Companies I placed an order for one."

The coordinate measuring machine of the Keyence XM series is compact enough to fit on a workbench, but it is still capable of accurately measuring large and complicated components thanks to its movable stage and handheld probe. According to the company, the user interface is straightforward, and the list of measurement options is comprehensive while remaining easy to comprehend. The functionality of geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T), virtual figures, statistics and trend analyses, deviation display, and other advanced features are provided to the user on the screen in the form of tools such as lines, points, circles, and planes. This guides the user through the process of measuring while also providing a variety of other advanced features.

Acquiring a Command of Measurement
According to Mr. Hegemann, the XM is so easy to operate that his company decided not to take advantage of the training that Keyence had to offer and instead went straight to work. Everyone working in the shop is now capable of checking their own parts after receiving only a few minutes' worth of instruction on how to do so. He claims that "it's so much better than our old CMM," and I agree with him."All you have to do is walk up to the machine, click on the appropriate icon, CMM Inspection Companies and you can measure anything from a bore to the distance between holes to flatness. Because it's more of a case of something that is actually being used as compared to something that isn't being used, I can't really say how much time it saves because it's more of a case of something that is actually being used."

He claims that the XM is extremely accurate, and he says this to those who might be skeptical of the handheld probe, as Mr. Hegemann was initially."At first, I wasn't completely certain, so I grabbed a 1.4375-inch ring gage, which is ground to within 50 millionths (0.000050 inch), and began checking. Every time I measured it, the Keyence XM came in within a tenth of an inch (0.0001 of an inch), which was exactly where it was supposed to be. You don't have to be particularly cautious; all you have to do is hold the probe against the surface, exert a little bit of pressure on it, press the button, and then proceed to the next point. It is the genuine article."