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XSPECT SOLUTIONS HELPS TOOL & DIE JOB SHOP UPGRADE CMM CAPABILITY FROM A MANUAL MACHINE TO A REMANUFACTURED SHFFIELD WITH NEW CONTROLLER AND OPENDMIS™ SOFTWARE

Parris Tool & Die in Goodlettsville, Tennessee has improved inspection speed and reporting accuracy through the purchase of a remanufactured Sheffield High Accuracy RS150 automatic CMM with new Wenzel 2030 CMM controller and OpenDMIS™ software.

Successful tool & die job shops today depend on quality and fast turnaround to secure new business and maintain their valuable on-going work with existing customers. In addition, having the ability to reverse engineer parts is permitting smaller to medium sized job shops to effectively compete in a wider range of industries. To a large extent, the software and the newer controls available on CMMs is what allow this to happen.

Paul Parris, president and owner at Parris Tool & Die in Goodlettsville, Tennessee recognized that in their manufacturing process, the manual Brown & Sharpe CMM they were using was hindering their ability to get their progressive, transfer and single hit stamping dies to market faster. Multiple piece layouts were taking weeks to inspect when they should be taking days.

It was determined that upgrading to an automatic CMM was essential, and John Peck, the quality control manager was put in charge of evaluating and recommending the best CMM equipment solution.

John Peck explains, "We were quite thorough with our review of the new CMM equipment manufacturers, but quickly determined that it would be unwise to burden the company with a capital expenditure of the magnitude required to provide the CMM capability we needed. Option No. 2…we went to the internet and found Xspect Solutions, Inc. It was readily apparent that Xspect was familiar with all of the CMM makes and had a very impressive inventory of machines that could be rebuilt and remanufactured to whatever specifications we required. In addition, Xspect Solutions is the North American representative for Wenzel CMMs and the suppliers of OpenDMIS™ software which gave us the level of experience and know-how we were looking for."

John continues, "We contacted Keith Mills, Xspect Solutions' president and he invited us to visit their facility in Wixom, Michigan where we could see the seventy plus CMMs they have at their facility, and together we could determine exactly what we needed."

Keith Mills says, "From our initial discussion and review of Parris Tool & Die's needs, we determined that a Sheffield RS150, with a measuring range of 48 x 80 x 40-inches, like the one we had in our shop fit the cost profile and the required measuring requirements. The RS150 CMM has a volumetric accuracy of .015mm and a maximum load capacity of 6000 lbs. We recommended equipping the machine with a Renishaw PH10M/TP200 probe and a Wenzel WPC2030 CMM controller that combines the latest CNC technology with the integration of all Renishaw heads with touch trigger probes. We also recommended OpenDMIS™ software. We had to do a little selling on OpenDMIS™ because the Parris Tool & Die technicians were familiar with PC DMIS and there is always a reluctance to change and learn new software. However, once the software was previewed and the simplicity, capabilities and graphics were proven, the Parris people were eager to have it.

Mills adds, "As luck would have it, the RS150 we had in stock was already spoken for…so we had to go find another one. Because Xspect Solutions' CMM network is globally broad, we were able to find an identical machine within a week, purchase it and provide the remanufacturing requirements and retrofit to meet the agreed upon delivery schedule."

John Peck concludes, "For the remanufactured Sheffield CMM, we built a separate temperature-controlled measuring room which wasn't completely finished when the machine was delivered. Xspect Solutions was made aware of our construction program and had it planned for our operators to train at their Wixom facility in the interim so they would be ready to begin doing layouts as soon as the CMM was completely installed. This allowed us to effectively manage the process so we were up and running as quickly as possible. Xspect Solutions made the whole process work smoothly and proficiently."

Xspect Solutions, Inc. headquartered in Wixom, Michigan, and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wenzel Gmbh of Germany. Xspect Solutions is the Number 3 supplier of CMMs in the North American metrology market including; new Wenzel CMMs, and is the world's largest supplier of pre-owned CMM equipment. Xspect Solutions also supplies new Wenzel CMMs with its OpenDMIS software to the North American markets