Since 1999, Saturn has bought four 12-foot arms from ROMER/ CimCore. Three are 1000i Series machines and one is a counterbalanced 3000i Series; Saturn also has ROMER linear rails in three sizes, 4, 6 and 10 feet, that make these 7-axis CMMs.
Inspection software for the arms includes three licenses for Power-Inspect, which is included with all ROMER 3000i arms. PowerInspect is developed for ROMER by Delcam Inc. (Ontario, Canada). Quality assurance technicians can use the PowerInspect software to generate visual reports of the inspection results of a part or tool. These reports can be invaluable for explaining needed changes.
The portable CMMs check tooling and the way the tools fit into the components. “Statistically speaking, we are doing significantly better since we began using the portable CMMs,” says Frank McMahon, body systems maintenance team leader in fabrication maintenance. “The current car presently has a Six Sigma variation of 1.8 to 1.9 millimeters. World-class is 1.5 millimeters and we are well on our way to that.”
This variation level was achieved while Spring Hill tooled up two new vehicles in less than a year. This required a commitment from the top Saturn executives.