Tool dimension calculation process improved

A FaroArm portable CMM from Faro Technologies has reduced the time taken to collect measurements of star wheels in bottling machines by 60%.

A designer and manufacturer of replacement components for bottling machines had a measurement issue: every bottling machine is slightly different, and custom replacement parts have to be designed to fit each individual machine.

Formerly, two inspectors would go to a bottling plant and collect measurements by hand using tape measures, large calipers and scales in order to gather the data necessary to design replacement parts.

The entire procedure required them to shut down a production line for approximately 20 hours.

The customer purchased a FaroArm.

Engineers mount the portable FaroArm directly on the bottling machines with the goal of producing star wheels that move a variety of bottle sizes through the machines.

FaroArm operators measure the location of current star wheels and worm screws, as well as the interference from random objects including holes, braces, and mounts.

The measurements are instantly recorded into a CAD operating system and used to reverse engineer the machine and pinpoint all locations for the custom wheels.

With the locations set, and measurement details captured, they can easily design the new star wheels.

Regardless of needing to produce several unique and different parts, all are accurately and consistently measured, allowing the assembly machines to run without interference.

They reduced the measurement and data gathering time more than 60 percent by using a FaroArm.

What used to take two men 20 hours to accomplish can now be done more reliably and accurately in less than 8 hours.

This translates into $3,200 savings per job, based on man hours alone.

There are additional savings from expense dollars previously wasted with overnight hotel, flight and meal costs.

"Although we are saving money on each measurement, that's not the big paycheck for us," the customer said.

"The big payback is that we are verifying machines better this way and measuring things we wouldn't have been able to measure in the field before.

We are taking on jobs we wouldn't have been able to do in the past.

When the Arm comes back from a job, it's immediately sent out on the next job".

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