Hartwig March Newsletter

Removing the human error

This seminar marked the first learning event offered by Hartwig Houston at no cost to the customers. - and it was a success! We had over 30 companies in attendance with multiple guests from nearly each company. The feedback we received from the participants was very positive. Most of the guests thought the format and length of the presentations was just right!

We had 4 Okuma partnered companies give a 30-minute presentation each on their latest technologies. These Companies were: Renishaw, Marposs, Hexagon, and Caron Engineering.

Renishaw, Inc.: Bill Cox and Carlos Betrand talked about 3 different stages of measuring: Set-Up Process (prior to machining), In-Process (probing on machine), and Post-Process (measuring after machining is completed). Renishaw recommends measuring parts In-Process using their probes and the OMV (On Machine Verification) Software. The operator has to program the points to be measured using either a Turret-mounted Probe on a lathe or a Spindle-mounted Probe on a Machining Center, and during the touch-off process the software generates a report that later can be accessed for historical data. Of course, all of the above is easily connected to any Okuma machine with an OSP P-200 control. Only a simple interface on the OSP is needed to make any of it compatible with the Okuma lathes or machining centers.

For Post-Process measuring, the latest development from Renishaw is the REVO system used on a CMM. This system consists of a Head and Software combination that allows the parts to be "Scanned" at 6,000 points per second! Unlike the OMV, the programmer does not have to enter the points to be measured; the REVO uses a Solid Model or CAD file to scan the machined part.

Marposs Corporation: Marposs offers a variety of measuring and software systems from manual to fully automatic, such as Pencil Probes, Digital Indicators (retrofit-able to any gauge), Bore Gauges (mechanical or wireless with a repeatability in the millions of an inch: 0.00002 - 0.00004"), Shaft Gauges, Grinding Wheel Gauges, and Laser Tool Setters. Marposs offers an SPC Software called Quick SPC, which allows tracking the measurements taken by the operator/inspector and feed these back to the Okuma OSP P-200 control for Tool Offset updates. In addition, Marposs offers 3D Software that allows mirroring of the programmed measurements from the CMM onto the CNC machine.

Hexagon Metrology, Inc.: Hexagon is the umbrella company offering Metrology products from Brown & Sharpe, CogniTens, DEA, Leica, Leitz, M&H Probes, Romer, Tesa, and PC-Dmis Software (common to all the Hexagon products). The product range is huge, and the technology involved is very advanced. The team from Hexagon did not give a general product presentation; they instead brought a Romer Arm (portable CMM) to show off their latest offering (still in Beta Testing), which allows the Romer Arm to measure threads. This is huge, especially here in south Texas! As far as we know, this is the only CMM Arm in the world to have this capability: By touching off on several points around the thread, or down a tapered thread, the PC-Dmis software generates a report of the measurements and compares it to a Solid Model or CAD to indicate if the thread is in or out of tolerance. Later, after the seminar was over, the B&S CMM, model Global, which is in the Hartwig Houston's showroom was demonstrated.

Caron Engineering: This was the presentation that tied it all together. Mark Munroe gave a general presentation of who is Caron Engineering; however, he focused on their Auto Comp Software package. The Auto Comp gets loaded in either the Okuma OSP P-200 or a laptop with an interface to a CNC, and this software tracks the measurements taken by the operator using any wireless digital gauge attached to any measuring device such as calipers of micrometers. When the measurements start going out of tolerance, the software is used to update - either manually confirmed by the operator, or automatically - the Tool Offset of the machine. It also keeps track of tool wear and visually indicates when it would be time for the operator to change the tool insert.

At the end of the 3-hour long seminar, which to me seemed to have gone by very quickly, many of the participants stayed to enjoy a healthy lunch, and the Hartwig Sales Engineers and the above mentioned companies had a chance to mingle with our customers and have conversations about their applications. There are several projects that came up because of what our customers heard in this seminar.

Every participant left with only good things to say about this seminar (judging from the survey they completed), and many said they would attend more of the monthly seminars Hartwig Houston will be offering in 2010. They even had suggestions of what they would like to see in the near future.

Since then, several customers have said to us that Hartwig is a company that believes in providing education and solutions to our valued customers. The customers appreciated that Hartwig believes and lives their mission statement, which is Hartwig helps people in manufacturing control their destiny every day.

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