Measuring High Precision Parts Directly In Production
APRIM, founded in 1965, is a high precision machined component manufacturer, located near Madrid, Spain. Although at first, they were specialized in the automotive sector, nowadays APRIM’s production is widely diversified: automotive, medical, services, railroad, defense and agriculture. They are certified in the automotive sector according to IATF16949, and they comply with the highest environmental standards according to ISO14001. APRIM supplies very demanding companies worldwide, that’s why they continuously invest on new technologies in order to obtain the most efficient and advanced processes.
APRIM has many measuring machines with different technologies (CMM, vision, laser, and machines specifically designed for 100% measurement in automatic processes), in order to face the market’s most demanding requirements. APRIM has recently invested in two new technologies in collaboration with Sariki, with the aim of solving their high precision challenges directly in the production. Mitutoyo’s most compact CMM and specifically designed for production environments, MiStar 555, and a contactless optical machine, Vici Vision’s MTL 1, specifically designed for turned and ground parts.
“An important fact in achieving success on the process is in the metrology” states Guillermo Sanz APRIM Technical Director.
The technological leap is clear. Their customer, before outsourcing the part, used three different machines for its correct verification: CMM + contour measuring machine + dedicated gear measuring machine. Today the control is done by the machine operator periodically or when changing tools. The CMM is used for three different phases of the manufacturing process.
APRIM identifies the main advantages and keys to success that the investment has brought as:
– Capability of measuring the part’s diameters and heights, with tolerances in plane within the hundredth.
– The continuous contour measurement feature allows scanning of the gear teeth so that the dimensions of the gear’s ‘roof’ can be obtained which is a very demanding process, due to the gear’s synchronizing function.
– The Mitutoyo Gearpak software allows measurements of characteristics that previously required dedicated gear machines such as the profile and flank errors, gear radial runout, etc.
“Mitutoyo’s MiStar 555 CMM has allowed us to measure all the dimensions of a synchronized gear, with a single machine, in an accurate and quickly way. All this, with the machine located in the workshop, saving time for the production operator” comments Guillermo Sanz. “The ease with which it is programmed is also a strength. We can design a program for a complex part in less than an hour. What’s more, the machine itself is capable of distinguishing both gears and measure according to their dimensions.”
Vici Vision’s MTL1 machine is also located in production, where the improvements of the process are much more beneficial. APRIM used to verify the turned parts manually, dimension by dimension. Some of these dimensions were measured on the contour measuring machine (a much slower and less accurate method), and other were measured on the CMM (which is also a slow process).
Nowadays, the Vici Vision technology allows APRIM to self-monitor the turned part’s production with high precision, comfortably, quickly and with a single equipment. They are able to measure diameters and heights at once. They have reduced the time of the self-monitoring standards of some of the processes by around 20%. This way, a measurement on the Vici Vision MTL 1 replaces several manual measurements made by the operator.
For more information: https://www.sariki.es/en/
