Measuring flexible or fragile parts with a coordinate measuring machine touch probe can be problematic because a simple touch can change the shape of the part--throwing off accuracy--or it may damage the piece upon contact.
I read the Wheeler's Workshop column in your magazine each month, with keen interest. However, in the May 2001 issue (p. 26), I found a comment in the "April Brain Teaser" section that is disconcerting.
Concerning your editorial, "Saving U.S. Jobs" (July 2001, p. 8), I must say this. It is not the moral duty of American manufacturing to bear the cross of "free trade" to demonstrate the theory that we are all somehow better off when we are losing manufacturing base to third world countries.
Is quality determined after a part is assembled or during machining operations? Or, does quality begin at the first step in developing products and processes?
Incompatibility among different brands of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and other metrology systems costs American business an estimated $1 billion each year.
It takes both flesh and bones to make up an entire body. So is it with the ISO 9000: 2000 standard released last December by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Gathering test, measurement and inspection data from workstations throughout a manufacturing facility can be done the traditional way--with pen and paper.