Automatic CMM Measurement Program Creation Reduces Inspection Man-Hours

Founded in 1908, Brother Industries began as a sewing machine repair business, and has continued to produce a wide range of products for consumer and industrial use, including home printers and industrial sewing machines, to this day.

Machine tools, one of the company’s main businesses, are “highly rated by customers mainly for their high processing speed and environmental friendliness,” says Tsunekawa of the Machinery Business Manufacturing Department. The Machinery Business Manufacturing Department, which is responsible for manufacturing machine tools, measures all dimensions of all components and materials in order to ensure product quality when launching new products.

Meanwhile, component inspections of models in mass production are also carried out simultaneously. Even under these circumstances, in order to complete the inspection of new models within the set deadline, not only was high measurement accuracy required, but the inspection process was also required to be more efficient. In order to build a more efficient inspection system, there was a growing need to streamline part program creation, eliminate dependency on individual staff, and shorten lead times by implementing offline teaching.

Variation in Measurement Quality Eliminated.

That’s why they introduced Mitutoyo’s MiCAT Planner, an automatic measurement program generation software for coordinate measuring machines. After introducing this product, even part programs for workpieces that previously required several days to create were reduced to about one day, resulting in a 20% reduction in labor hours for the entire inspection. The shift to offline teaching has also led to a reduction in overall lead time. Mr. Tsunekawa also talked about how this has led to the outcome of moving away from dependency on individual tasks, saying, “The variation in measurement quality has been eliminated.”

For more information: www.mitutoyo.com