Product category:
Measurement systems
News Release from: Faro UK | Subject: PowerGAGE - CAD-to-part analysis
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 24 July 2006
Measuring gauge does CAD-to-part
analysis
Measuring gauge that can perform CAD-to-part analysis creates inspection programs/routines offline for anyone in the facility to run and mports all major industry CAD formats.
FARO Technologies, Inc, the world's single source for a complete line of portable CAM2 solutions, has released the FARO PowerGAGE - a new measurement device that adds CAD-to-part analysis capability to its FARO Gage product line "The FARO PowerGAGE serves the unfulfilled market need for on-machine inspection (OMI) estimated at $1.5 billion," FARO president and co-CEO Jay Freeland said
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 12 Mar 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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"It is a tremendous opportunity, as this is the only portable measurement device that enables manufacturers to verify that a part meets the CAD file's specs to within .0002 of an inch - right on the machine that's producing the part." The PowerGAGE is different from its FARO Gage and Gage-PLUS counterparts in that it can perform CAD-to-part analysis.
Whereas the FaroArm enables users to reverse engineer and use more than 60 different software platforms, the PowerGAGE runs exclusively on a version of Delcam's PowerINSPECT - software already used by the majority of the OMI market.
When equipped with both of PowerINSPECT's Programmer and Play-Only modules, PowerGAGE users can do the following.
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* Create inspection programs/routines offline for anyone in the facility to run.
* Import all major industry CAD formats.
* Perform surface inspection against master CAD files.
* Receive on-screen instructions including images and videos.
* Access a full suite of geometric inspection tools.
* Automatically optimize the viewing angle of the part as they measure.
* Save all inspection data and run customized reports .
The PowerGAGE, which resembles a short, metallic arm, is a high-tech, yet user-friendly manufacturing inspection device.
Instead of taking the part to an expensive fixed CMM in a climate-controlled room, they can mount the PowerGAGE directly to where the part is being made.
As the user traces the arm's tip over the part's entire surface, the system's laptop computer verifies all of the part's 3-D measurements against the original CAD file - the digital 'blueprint' - to see if it was made correctly and, if not, where it needs to be corrected, thus reducing scrap, re-work and labour costs.
"We developed the PowerGAGE as a direct result of input from customers who wanted the high, 0.0002in accuracy of our FARO Gage-PLUS, but needed expanded capability to handle CAD-to-part analysis," Freeland said.
* About FARO - with approximately 12,500 installations and 5,500 customers globally, FARO Technologies (NASDAQ: FARO) and its international subsidiaries design, develop, and market software and portable, computerized measurement devices.
The Company's products allow manufacturers to perform 3D inspections of parts and assemblies on the shop floor.
This helps eliminate manufacturing errors, and thereby increases productivity and profitability for a variety of industries in FARO's worldwide customer base.
Principal products include the Platinum, Titanium, Advantage, and Digital Template FaroArms; the FARO Gage, Gage-PLUS and PowerGAGE; the FARO Laser ScanArm; the FARO Laser Tracker X and Xi; the FARO Laser Scanner LS; and the CAM2 family of advanced CAD-based measurement and reporting software.
FARO Technologies is ISO-9001:2000 certified, and accredited to ISO-17025 Calibration Laboratory Standard. Request a free brochure from Faro UK ...
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