Precision machining company, B.C. Instruments (Ontario, Canada) has been serving customers in the Aerospace, Defense, Plastic Injection Molding, Medical, Nuclear and Electronic industries since 1971. Utilizing modern CNC equipment, its skilled employees specialize in the manufacture of components and assemblies requiring close tolerances of up to +/- .0001 inch. The company has 150 employees with more than 100 people on the shop floor across five divisions including injection molding, aerospace, medical, power generation & nuclear, and electronic.
Its injection molding unit faces intense competition and tight delivery times. Recently it had to look for an improved inspection process solution. B.C. Instruments had been taking parts off the production line and moving them to a CMM for inspection. This process was too slow and inefficient.
Quality Assurance Inspector Brent Cordy and Department Plant Manager Sean Smith researched new inspection solutions during the fall of 2017 and they chose the HVR100-FLIP Digital Video System from The L.S. Starrett Co.
The Starrett HVR100-FLIP is an innovative large field-of-view (FOV) Benchtop Vision Measurement System that is capable of being used in either a vertical or horizontal orientation. It features a high-resolution digital video camera and minimal optical distortion for accurate FOV measurements of up to 90mm (3.65").
"The HVR100-FLIP allows our team to quickly inspect multiple features on a part within seconds," said Cordy. "The old measurement process was inefficient and took minutes to perform, wasting valuable production time." Currently being primarily used in a horizontal set-up, the vertical set-up is also advantageous due to a smaller footprint.
The injection molding unit at B.C. Instruments generally inspects a family of parts including an injection molding nozzle. The nozzles have exceptionally tight tolerances with various features including a critical thread on one end, various milling features and varying profiles on the OD ‒ all requiring inspection. "Customers make continual requests for variations of the nozzle," said Mr. Roger Conzelmann, President of B.C. Instruments. "The speed and versatility of the Starrett HVR100-FLIP system allows us to address very fast turnaround times from design to manufacture of these frequently changing parts. Since components have been programmed on the HVR100-FLIP, our incoming inspection has improved by 75%."
As B.C. Instruments continues to meet increasingly challenging customer demands, it can rely on the Starrett HVR100-FLIP for accuracy, rapid measurement results and application versatility.
Learn more about the HVR100 Flip Digital Video System here.