Instrumentation • Electronics
4 Design engineers are increasingly turning to co-ordinate measurement and additive layer manufacturing techniques to bring products quickly to market. Boris Sedacca reports on the latest techniques to speed up data capture and 3D desktop CAD design.
4 Les ingénieurs concepteurs optent de plus en plus pour la mesure de coordonnées et pour la technique de fabrication par couches additives pour lancer rapidement les produits sur le marché. Boris Sedacca nous présente un compte- rendu sur les plus modernes techniques.
4 Konstrukteure setzen verstärkt auf die Koordinatenmessung und Techniken im Bereich Additive Layer Manufacturing [Fertigungsverfahren unter Einsatz von Lasertechnik und Materialstaub], um Produkte schneller auf den Markt zu bringen. Boris Sedacca berichtet über die neusten Technologien.
Co-ordinate measurement: quick product to market response
F
actory inspectors, laboratory testers, measurement engineers, machine tool manufacturers, medical implant manufacturers, workshops and automotive plastics moulding makers
all rely on measurement in three dimensions. This is required in diverse sectors ranging from medicine to aerospace, where the need for accuracy is paramount. Co-ordinate measurement machines (CMMs)
have stolen a march over discrete conventional measurement techniques and rapid prototyping allows organisations to quickly satisfy time- critical demand for products. Classical methods of industrial and laboratory measurements have in the past relied on tools like Vernier callipers, micrometers, dial test indicators and so on. Speeding up measurement is an essential
step towards rapid product prototyping and manufacturing using additive layer techniques, including 3D printing. Barry Assheton, sales director at CRDM, argues that CMM is already becoming old hat as his company uses computerised tomography (CT) scanning, which allows engineers to see inside components.
“This is important if is it is a safety critical part, say in aerospace,” Assheton adds. “CMM only takes external dimensions but sometimes we need more information about a part such as its precise dimensions and tolerances, whether it fits to the other parts properly and whether there are any voids inside it. The design engineer needs to ask: ‘Can I take the part and create a CAD model from it?’ We are finding a lot more customers asking for a CT scan as part of their initial sample reports as they then do not have to do destructive testing.” However, Ben Verduijn, account manager for
metrology, spectroscopy and additive manufacturing at Renishaw Netherlands is sceptical: “What Barry is telling is nice, but exceptional at the moment. Who is using CT scan in the metal part world?” Assheton could not counter Verduijn’s remarks at the time of going to press. Some of the data fed into rapid manufacturing
machines will come from measurement, but the bulk comes from desktop 3D computer aided design (CAD), according Frank Schaeflein, senior application engineer at additive layer machine manufacturer Stratasys. “I would say roughly 80 per cent is 3D CAD, although data that does
Fig. 1. At Farnborough 2012, EADS presented the prototype of a UAV produced by ALM technology.
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