Gamma Aerospace: Metrology Upgrades

Terrific capabilities, tiny needs

“我们的数字检查区域有一系列测量设备，包括coordinate measuring machines（CMMs的）and portable inspection arms, but even our smallest CMM has an 8-foot bed, and the arm has a 6-foot inspection envelope,” he says. “These are fine for our larger parts, but we also machine an awful lot of small, tight-tolerance parts. We found it time-consuming and a little awkward to setup a humungous measuring machine for parts that you can hold in your hand.”

其中一个是三角形，两英寸长金属夹，用于洛克希德的F-35战斗机，伽玛机数量每月300分。Until recently, one of Jackson’s team members would inspect a representative sample of each production lot on one of the CMMs, but because the parts would later be cadmium plated, it was necessary to 100% inspect each of the part’s three close-tolerance holes, verifying they would meet post-plating tolerance requirements.

“The CMM part of the inspection process wasn’t super long, maybe 10 minutes or so, but we had to use an inside micrometer to check all the holes,” Jackson explains. “Think about hand-checking three-hundred parts times three holes each—that’s 900 holes per job. That’s what got me thinking about The KEYENCE optical comparator.”

Jackson is a chemist by trade. He’d used the inspection equipment provider’s digital microscopes in the past, and says “he loves KEYENCE equipment.” So, when he was approached by the local system specialist about the company’sIM系列即时测量系统tem，下一代，自动化optical comparator杰克逊欢迎他参加演示。

过渡团队和技术

There’s more to this story than finding an efficient way to check small parts, however. Jackson was also plagued with a problem that virtually all manufacturing companies can relate to: finding qualified people—in his case, inspectors. Fortunately, he soon discovered a way to address both of these issues.

自1971年以来，伽玛航空公司已成为航空航天组件制造的领导者。公司拥有广泛的加工能力以及深层绘图，成型，弯曲和装配的熟练程度，该公司吸引了波音，贝尔直升机，精神空气系统等客户等客户。

一旦家庭拥有的公司，伽玛被芝加哥私人投资公司，阿什兰首都合作伙伴收购，于2017年3月。此后，该公司已经在新设备和制造技术中投入了很大投资，并在最后的董事会会议期间一年来审查部门需求，杰克逊被要求定义他最大的跨栏。

“Though we had some great equipment at our disposal, we were definitely lacking the right tools to measure the smaller parts,” he says. “But even if we’d had those tools, our biggest bottleneck was a lack of skilled inspectors. So, when the board asked me what I was going to do to resolve the situation, I told them about the KEYENCE equipment, explaining that it would not only solve our small parts challenges, but was easy enough to use that we could leverage less experienced people to operate it.”

董事会的回应：“为什么你没有买它？”