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Product category: Form/co-ordinate, optical and vision instrumentation
News Release from: LK | Subject: HC-90 CMM
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 19 July 2005

CMM aids automotive research

An HC-90 co-ordinate measuring machine is the latest acquisition by Warwick Manufacturing Group's International Automotive Research Centre at the University of Warwick.

Capable of inspecting anything from a fully assembled vehicle to a small subassembly or component, an HC-90 co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) from LK is the latest acquisition by Warwick Manufacturing Group's International Automotive Research Centre at the University of Warwick The Group is celebrating 25 years since its foundation by Professor Lord Bhattacharyya and is today one of Europe's leading manufacturing research centres

The International Automotive Research Centre is home to the new metrology facility, which became operational in May 2005.

It is described by team leader, Dr Mark Williams, as "the most accurate and repeatable horizontal-arm, rail-type CMM in the world", due to its ability to achieve 6um repeatability and 10+L/200um accuracy, where L is the measured length in millimetres.

LK's novel air bearing design offering high stiffness of around 140,000N/mm is one of the reasons that such high precision is obtained over a measuring volume of 6300 x 1600 x 2000mm.

The International Automotive Research Centre carries out research into all aspects of automotive manufacturing.

With the support of regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands, a GBP 58 million project called Premium Automotive Research and Development (PARD) is currently under way focusing on supporting premium car manufacture in the West Midlands by raising standards and knowledge in the supply chain.

A key partner in the venture is Ford's Premier Automotive Group, which manufactures Aston Martin, Jaguar, and Land Rover products in the West Midlands.

These OEMs also use LK CMMs at their car plants for offline and production-line quality control.

PARD's primary focus is on the supply chain, as this is where the biggest shortfall exists in technical knowledge, skills and business techniques.

The project has already helped many first-tier suppliers in the West Midlands, and some further field, to achieve the high level of quality and consistency that UK car manufacturers need in order to remain successful in world markets.

Second- and third-tier suppliers are now being sought to join the programme.

In contrast to a busy OEM, which will reject a batch of subassemblies for being below standard and expect the supplier to sort it out, PARD's approach is to spend time with the subcontractor advising and indeed demonstrating how best to manufacture the components or assemblies to the required quality or better.

There are 20 areas where assistance is offered, from advanced body joining including laser welding through new materials and sensors to tooling, training and skills development.

Currently the LK CMM's main role is to support the "craftsmanship" project within the PARD programme, which is Dr Williams' main focus working under the Principal Investigator, Dr Charles Tenant and Programme Director, Charles Carey.

The craftsmanship project, which looks at visual, audio and tactile qualities, is crucial to raising the quality of a vehicle as perceived by the customer and covers such areas as gap measurement, cockpit noise and wood grain matching.

One of the first vehicles to be assessed for geometry and alignment of its panels using the CMM at the University of Warwick was a validation Range Rover Sport, due shortly in the showrooms.

It will doubtless be followed by different prestige models from within the Premier Automotive Group as well as from other OEMs.

Such final inspection is crucial to the appearance of a top-of-the-range vehicle, as the human eye can detect very small amounts of run-out between adjacent edges; even relatively inexpensive cars perform well in this area these days.

All of LK's technology is available to the PARD programme and the International Automotive Research Centre at Warwick Manufacturing Group.

Supplied on permanent loan, it comprises the CMM itself plus the latest version of the manufacturer's internally developed software, Camio V4.1, for offline and online creation, execution and analysis of inspection programs on any make and type of measuring machine, including manual machines and portable articulated arms.

Touch trigger probing, analogue scanning and laser scanning equipment have been provided, covering all the latest data acquisition techniques.

In Professor Bhattacharyya's opinion, manufacture of high added-value, premium products in individual or geographical centres of excellence, not just in the automotive industry but across the board, is key to the future prosperity of UK manufacturing.

Initiatives like the International Automotive Research Centre, where partnerships are forged between industry, universities and suppliers such as LK to further the technological edge of manufacturers, is what should be happening across the whole of UK engineering.

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