QUALITY & METROLOGY CONTROL & ASSURANCE
destined for CMM inspection is left in this
room for a full 24 hours before inspection,
ensuring thermal stabilisation.
Says QHS manager Chris Green: “Already
familiar with Aberlink CMMs and measuring
software, we were shown the Xtreme at
MACH 2018 and were really impressed.
There was nothing else like it at the
exhibition and it met all of our requirements,
in terms of size, performance and price. We
had looked at other measuring options but
couldn’t justify the cost. Other CMMs can be
serious sums of money and then you feel
stuck with the machine for life. Aberlink
CMMs are so cost-effective that you’re able
to review the situation after 10 years and, if
needed, upgrade the CMM, keeping more in
tune with changes in technology.”
Aberlink’s Xtreme CMM boasts the
capability to be located wherever it is
needed, as the machine is not reliant on a
compressed air supply, making it a true plugand
play solution for either the shop oor or
inspection room.
“There is no other CMM on the market
that you can basically wheel in and out
whenever needed and, because of its small
footprint, it’s easy to position, even with
limited space available,” says Green. “The
sheer speed of the CMM is equally
impressive; it has substantially increased
the through- ow of work, allowing inspection
staff to carry out other tasks.”
Even the leisure industry is bene ting
from the latest metrology equipment, as
evidenced by The R&A, situated close to the
home of golf near St Andrews, which has
taken delivery of a contour and surface
roughness instrument from Mitutoyo
(https://is.gd/haloca) to help it evaluate
submissions of new equipment for
conformance to the of cial rules of golf.
RULE OF FIVE
The rules and speci cations related to golf
clubs are divided into ve separate
categories: club (general), shaft, grip, club
head and club face. Having used a previous
generation Mitutoyo Formtracer instrument
for measuring the impact area markings on
club faces for some years, the organisation
recently took delivery of the newly launched
Mitutoyo Formtracer Avant. The Formtracer
Avant is now being used to precisely
measure the pro les, widths, depths, edge
radii and separation distances of the
grooves located on the impact areas of club
faces against the relevant speci cations
detailed in the rules. Surface nish is also
inspected using the Formtracer Avant, which
avoids the need to invest in two separate
devices as it is able to convert from a
surface roughness measuring instrument
into a contour measuring device – and vice
versa – within seconds.
“Each week we receive 30-40
The MItutoyo Formtracer Avant is now being
used to measure features on golf club faces
submissions of new equipment for
evaluation,” says assistant director –
research and testing at The R&A, Andrew
Johnson. “Our Mitutoyo Formtracer has
proven reliable, and provided the necessary
levels of accuracy and ease-of-use.
Replacing it with the new Avant model has
ensured that we are able to keep pace with
the high volumes of contour and surface
roughness testing.”
At the opposite end of the country,
Fareham-based MECH Metrology has
invested in a Trimos Horizon Premium length
measuring machine from Bowers Group
(https://is.gd/idayon). The move has not only
increased MECH Metrology’s capacity for inhouse
calibration services, but improved
certainty of measurement by 50%. As well as
enabling the business to calibrate plug
gauges traceable to UKAS standards, the
Trimos Horizon Premium can help calibrate
thread, plug and ring gauges, plain plug
gauges, and plain ring gauges.
Russell Johnston, owner of MECH
Metrology, says: “There are three key
reasons why we chose to invest in the
Trimos Horizon Premium: capability, capacity
and accuracy. We can now calibrate more
equipment in house than ever, at a higher
level of accuracy. Speed of process has also
improved signi cantly, so we can get more
work done in less time.” And he con rms
that the return on investment for the Horizon
42 April 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
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/haloca
/idayon