archive the CMM’s results, or print-out
detailed customer inspection reports.”
With the new CMM and the speed and
extra capacity it brings, he says that it will
“ensure that no hold-ups occur when
inspecting our current levels of output, and it
will also be able to handle all predicted
increases in production”.
Another rm operating in a demanding
environment, that of motorsport, is Good
Fabrications Ltd or GoodFabs as the rm is
more widely known in the industry. But here,
the company has chosen an Aberlink
(https://is.gd/apilex) Axiom too 600 CNC
CMM to support new requirements.
PERFORMANCE PRODUCTS
Formed in 1982 by ex-McLaren fabricator
Steve Good, for the past 37 years GoodFabs
has earned an enviable, international
reputation for designing, developing and
manufacturing performance exhausts and
manifolds for the world’s fastest machines
that must perform at the very top levels of
motorsport. Each and every component on
the car could mean the difference between
winning and losing.
With its base in Long Crendon in
Motorsport Valley, the company is a member
of the Silverstone Technology Cluster and
over 75% of GoodFabs’ output is produced
for, and supplied to, Formula 1 rms, with
the other 25% manufactured for other racing
categories, including the World Rally
Championships (WRC), Touring Cars and
NASCAR.
QUALITY & METROLOGY MEASURED INVESTMENT
GoodFabs has improved its quality credentials, supporting more
exacting measurement, with this Aberlink CMM
Fuel cell measurement challenge met
Taylor Hobson (https://is.gd/helufe) is underlining a solution to
the challenge of steep-sided groove measurement, using its
Form Talysurf PG Novus and Metrology 4.0 software.
Fuel cells convert chemical energy (usually Hydrogen) directly
into electrical energy, water and heat. A fuel cell combined with
a motor can replace the need for an engine. But the cells have
multiple steep-sided grooves that affect gas diffusion and hence
fuel cell performance, posing an inspection challenge.
Explains the company: “The biggest dif culty in measuring
a fuel cell is being able to measure the grooves along the
surface. These can have very steep (~75°) surfaces and cannot
be measured with a single trace using a pro lometer. Typical
stylus tips have an included angle of 60°, which limits the valid
measurement to an angle of ~45°. Measurement solutions need
to provide valid data along the length of the groove.”
The company further explains that for any measurement to
accurately capture the true pro le of the groove, the component
must be well aligned to the measurement axis. If there is any
misalignment of the fuel cell, then the true pro le of the groove
will be missed. To aid accuracy and speed up the measurement
cycle time, the alignment process should be fully automatic.
The combination of Form Talysurf PG Novus and Metrology
4.0 sees a traverse unit tilt, enabling the component to lie at
on the measurement stage and the traverse unit to be angled to
allow for a steep-sided measurement. The traverse unit can be
inclined to an angle of up to 30° and has been designed to be t
for use with a wide variety of fuel cell designs.
Full application details: https://is.gd/lagozu.
32 www.machinery.co.uk @MachineryTweets October 2019
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