Case Study - ACG Fyrtal AB

QUALITY INSPECTION SOLUTIONS
CUSTOMER CASE STUDY
Creating a Business Case
for Laser Inspection
of Sheet Metal Components
How does a five-decade-old, privately-owned New England
sheet metal job shop remain competitive and profitable even
Part Inspection that’s Completely
Objective
during challenging economic times? According to Moe
St. Germain, chief operating officer of Century Manufacturing
Century installed the Virtek LaserQC in 2000 and uses it to per-
Co., Inc., of Holliston, Massachusetts, “A fair price, on-time
form first article inspections and in-process work for every job.
delivery and consistent product quality is the
recipe. But having a tangible way to demonstrate the quality of each job to the customer
is the secret ingredient.” To achieve this,
St. Germain and his team rely on the Virtek® LaserQC® rapid
inspection system that employs lasers to capture more than
“With manual inspection, accuracy
depends on the person doing the
measuring. With the Virtek LaserQC,
it takes only a minute or two, and it’s
completely objective – nothing ever
touches the part.”
“Some of our parts are so complicated, it can take several
hours for an employee to inspect them using vernier calipers
and micrometers. With manual inspection, accuracy depends
on the person doing the measuring. With the Virtek LaserQC,
it takes only a minute or two, and it’s completely objective –
nothing ever touches the part.”
500 data points per second and is accurate to within 0.05mm
(0.002 inches). The system compares the finished product to a
customer’s CAD file and produces a detailed report with all
Return on Investment in Less than
One Year
dimensions and deviations from tolerances.
When companies grapple with the bottlenecks that manual
inspection creates and strive to maximize green-light time on
costly press brakes, punch presses and laser cutting systems,
many of them realize a return on their investment in a Virtek
LaserQC system in less than a year. “It’s great at catching errors
caused by a broken punch or an operator using an incorrect
punch,” said St. Germain. “And we include an inspection
report with every job we ship.”
“With quality at the forefront of every
customer’s mind, if a guy can’t create a
business case for a system like this, he’s
not going to be around for long.”
The Virtek LaserQC system is a non-contact, highly accurate part
inspection system used for first article inspections and reverse
engineering. It is accurate to within 0.05mm (0.002 inches).
Quality Inspection as a Sales Tool
The Virtek LaserQC also serves as a sales tool with new customers.
“Last month, we quoted 50 new jobs,” said St. Germain. “We
invite potential customers into our shop
“It’s great at catching
errors caused by a broken
punch or an operator
using an incorrect punch.”
and ask them to bring
one of their parts. At
the beginning of their
visit, we scan the part
using the Virtek
Century manufactures a complete line of fiberoptic interconnect
products for wall mount and rack mount applications.
LaserQC. Because the system is so fast, we’re able to reverse
engineer the part and make it while they’re touring the shop;
and by the time they’re ready to leave, we hand them their
When asked how he would summarize quality control in the
part. It’s a pretty powerful example of our capabilities.”
sheet metal industry today, he says, “With quality at the
forefront of every customer’s mind, if a guy can’t create a
business case for a system like this, he’s not going to be
around for long.”
The system automatically creates a detailed, color-coded inspection
report of the scanned part, including CAD data variances to meet
requirements for ISO, TQM, Six Sigma, Lean and QS reporting.
Century Manufacturing is a 100,000-square-foot immaculate
facility located 25 miles from Boston, Massachusetts, that has
been ISO certified for a decade. Among other things, the
company performs sheet metal fabrication and stamping for
biomedical and homeland security devices, telecommunications products and automotive applications.
The Virtek LaserQC has been scanning 30 to 50 parts a day
for 11 years. “Aside from occasionally replacing the glass on
which the parts lie because it gets scratched, we’ve never
had to service the system. We just install updates to the software as they become available and the system runs itself.”
Lasers capture more than 500 data points per second cutting
inspection times from hours to minutes.
Corporate Headquarters
Gerber Technology
24 Industrial Park Road West
Tolland, CT 06084, USA
Phone: +1 860 871 8082
Virtek Vision International
(ISO 9001:2008 certified)
785 Bridge St.
Waterloo, Ontario,
Canada N2V2K1
Phone: +1 519 746 7190
www.gerbertechnology.com
November 2011