Despite the mountains of paperwork and sophisticated systems, occasionally a glitch makes all of that effort appear to have been a waste. It happens to the best of us with the only winners being therapists and system developers claiming to have the answers that will save us from a repeat in the future.

Simply put, product quality is always on the mind of a production manager. But what exactly characterizes a quality product? Is it when CMM inspection data reads good versus bad?

With its racing debut in 2016, Haas F1 Team is the first American Formula One team to hit the circuit since 1986. Founded by Gene Haas, the team is based in Kannapolis, NC. Haas is the founder of Haas Automation, the largest CNC machine tool builder in North America, and he is the chairman of Haas F1 Team.

CMMs are vital measurement systems for many quality departments. Of the many active components of these systems, the software used to control and record the measurement of parts is critical to getting the most complete performance out of your machine. It is important to be diligent in your search for the software package that will best fit your needs. 

Surfaces are designed into products to reduce friction, “store” lubricants, provide a high luster finish or be the proper texture to hold paint (but not show the actual surface of the paint). 

The need for nondestructive evaluation on large quantity production components is becoming more achievable with CT technology due to the advances in machine hardware and processing techniques over the past few years.

To choose the right 3D surface measurement tool, an engineer must carefully consider the size of the object, the speed of the scan and analysis, and a customer’s tolerance requirements.

This white paper explains the main aspects of ISO 10360 and, in particular, ISO 10360-7, the standard for inspecting coordinate measuring machines with imaging probing systems. Learn why ZEISS chose this standard, how this standard benefits customers and what you need to keep in mind in the implementation.

Quite often in manufacturing, an inspection department is treated primarily as a necessary overhead expense required to assure compliance to customer specifications. Sometimes an inspection department may also be treated as a profit center for compliance to a variety of test protocols dictated by external agencies, or perhaps internal procedures to demonstrate traceability to certain quality standards. 

When explaining surface finish measurement, it can be helpful to start with the classic metaphor of a desert, as often described by gage maker Taylor Hobson. Imagine grains of sand as roughness, the ripples of sand as waviness, and then the undulating dunes as the surface profile.