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What does a tool-and-die shop do when Ford Motor Co. wants you to cut the time in half that you need to scan inserts and other details for its progressive dies? For Vicount Industries Inc. (Farmington Hills, MI), the only possible answer was to invest in three-dimensional measurement technology that could satisfy the demand. So the 60-employee shop bought an LC50 laser scanner from Metris North America Inc. (Rochester Hills, MI) and retrofitted it to one of the two coordinate-measuring machines (CMMs) in the 30,000-ft2 facility.
Ford had been asking Vicount to produce backup sets of high-usage details that go inside some of its production dies. The problem was no blueprints or computer-aide design (CAD) files existed. So rather than sending Vicount’s engineers a drawing or file, the automaker had to ship the details to Vicount to let the quality control lab there scan them in three dimensions for reverse engineering. Because the details were for a program currently in production, Ford was eager to have them back within two or three days.
The old method of scanning relied on a scanning touch probe, so the typical job using that technology took about a week. “Ford was feeding us so many details that we couldn’t keep up with the old technology,” says Leonard LaVoy, General Manager and part owner of the 30-year-old shop. “Sometimes they will send us in a skid with 20 details on it at a time.”
Speed, therefore, was the primary criterion for his investment in the Metris scanning head. It cut the turnaround time in half, mostly because the laser collects 19,200 datum points per second and comes with macros that simplify programming it and the CMM wielding it. Vicount’s Geomagic Studio modeling software trimmed even more time from the process by making the application of surfaces to the point cloud collected by the laser scanner much easier than it was with the conventional touch probes.
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Another reason that LaVoy chose the LC50 laser scanner was that the retrofit was easy, taking only two days. Metris’ engineers have already done the development work for tying the company’s scanners directly into the native software of any make of CMM, and the head fits the Renishaw’s PH10M(Q) interface and multiwire concept. Consequently, the integration with the modeling software and the Brown and Sharpe CMM in the quality control lab went smoothly. The only hardware required was the scanning head and a new PC capable of handling the large volume of points that the scanner collects in a short time.
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“Now we just about guarantee that we’ll turn customers’ scanning jobs around in 48 hours,” says LaVoy. Ford and other customers can get their tools back in a few days and put them back into service—at least, when it comes to replacements, those that are not broken too badly to work right. Meanwhile, Vicount’s experts use the scanned point cloud to build CAD models of the details and go about producing the pieces on the two lathes, and ten grinders, and 14 mills and machining centers in the machine shop.
Because of the competitive edge that the quick turnaround has given the company, Vicount’s perishable detail business has grown. The shop now
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receives details from all over the US to make backups and replacements, and detail production has grown to be between 10 and 20% of its business.
Besides providing the means to expand the detail business, the laser scanner also is allowing Vicount to offer a three-dimensional analysis service. After scanning a part and creating a three-dimensional model from the cloud of points, Vicount’s quality control department uses the Geomagic computer-aided inspection software to compare the measurements to the original CAD model. The output is an intuitive color-coded map that shows how much each area deviates from nominal. “People don’t have to go through reams of paper containing CMM measurements to decipher what their parts looks like,” says LaVoy. “They see areas of concern immediately.”
A good example is the structural member that goes behind automobile dashboards that one customer wanted Vicount to check. Although this part has flat surfaces, it also contains ridges, valleys, and holes of various sizes. Moreover, the areas around most of the holes are raised slightly, complicating an already complex measurement task for conventional touch probes. “The customer wanted to know the size of each radius on it,” says Kevin Strine, quality control manager. “The amount of data was just overwhelming.”
In fact, the scan contained 1.7 million measurement points, and scanning took approximately 1.5 hours. To make the file more manageable, Strine used a filter on the software to eliminate the excess points and reduce the point cloud to 96,000 points, a process that takes just a few seconds. “The filter puts more points around the radii than on the flats because you need more points to define radii,” he explains. “A flat surface needs only three points to define it. So why would you want to waste time on the computer processing all those extra points?”
After collecting the points, the quality control lab sent the file to the CAD Dept., which spent about 2.5 hours building an electronic model of the part
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and creating the color map showing the deviations from nominal. For most jobs, Vicount supplies the surface data from these scans within a week of taking the measurements.
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The scanner also comes in handy on new construction, the mainstay of Vicount’s business. “If we do some hand barbering in a press, we’ll scan it to be sure that we have a CAD model of it,” says LaVoy. The scanner is strategic for the company’s growing perishable detail business.
With Metris’ LC50 laser scanner, Vicount’s Quality Control Dept. scanned 1.7 million measurement points in approximately 1.5 hours on this dashboard member. Measuring the radii on all of the ridges, valleys, holes, and raised surfaces by conventional touch probe would have taken more than a week.
Vicount was able to scan this cracked die and return it in within 48 hours of receiving it. The customer could then continue production while Vicount made a replacement.
The Metris laser scanner allows Vicount to scan details for stamping dies and send customers a color map in about 48 hours. Because of this quick turnaround, Vicount’s perishable detail business has grown rapidly to become 10 to 20% of its business.
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Download: High-speed laser scanner boosts diemaker's business (PDF file)
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