Metrology Minute

Utilizing Color Maps for understanding machining outcomes Consider this airfoil. It was programmed and machined on a 5-Axis mill, using a single setup. The ball mill was able to travel completely around the shape, during the machining process and therefore blending the top and bottom of the surface didn’t need to be considered. Our job is to inspect the airfoil and make suggestions to the CNC Programmer and Tool Designer to optimize the machining process. [...]

Very often, when a part is designed in CAD, in terms of its orientation and origin, it isn’t necessarily where it needs to be oriented in the final assembly. Therefore, inspection values may not reveal the true picture as to what is needed regarding inspection data. Let’s consider this crankshaft below. The CAD designer created this sub-assembly with the part’s origin as shown. Then, any distance or location dimensions shown in the inspection will be [...]

Most CMM’s will ship with a language-based CMM programming software package that is powerful but very time-consuming to learn and challenging to master. It is therefore very common for job shops and manufacturing facilities to have just a single CMM programmer who has gone through the painstaking efforts of becoming proficient with the software. But what happens when that person goes on vacation, is out sick, or leaves the company? Many shops own very expensive [...]

Most modern-day CMM’s will ship with onboard CMM programming software that is powerful yet challenging to learn and use. Companies end up investing weeks and even months getting one or two users proficient with the software. But those individuals can get sick or take vacation at inopportune times or perhaps leave the company. What happens then? Is there a simple way to transition a Mastercam CNC Programmer into a CMM programmer? Verisurf’s Universal CMM (UCMM) [...]

Planned vs. Achieved Results from Dental Aligners While most Control X users are inspecting mechanical parts by comparing the manufactured results to the nominal CAD model, there are many other uses for Control X, such as in the dental industry. We will explore some of the benefits of using Control X in the dental industry in this post. For example, companies that manufacture aligners have methods and algorithms in place for predicting what the final [...]

In past Metrology Minute articles, we discussed the ability to import PMI data into Control X using the File, Import PMI option. As a reminder, PMI (Product Manufacturing Information) allows dissimilar systems to share manufacturing information specifically related to dimensioning and tolerances. So, for example, a Solidworks user can add PMI to their Solidworks model (see example below) using the MBD tab and then that PMI information, including but not limited to; Datums, dimensions with [...]