Drive and control specialist Bosch Rexroth has reported two years of maintenance-free production at its plant in Schweinfurt, Germany, following the installation of its own Integrated Measuring Systems (IMS) on its machine tools, a move that has saved the company tens of thousands of euros in maintenance and running costs.
The plant, which manufactures precision linear motion components such as profiled rails, runner blocks and ball screw drives, as well as entire linear motion systems, has not experienced a single instance of machine downtime, while producing materials with a repeatability of ±0.25 µm.
Bosch Rexroth has now converted its cost savings into a “Total Cost of Ownership“ tool, which allows manufacturers to calculate their own savings, as well as the potential savings for mechanical engineers and end users.
Until 2014, Bosch Rexroth relied on optical position sensors, or glass scales, to achieve the desired accuracy with its metal-cutting equipment. These solutions were expensive because they required regular cleaning and maintenance. At times, they were even responsible for machine failures because they were prone to introducing contaminants. As a result, Bosch Rexroth installed IMS, which can detect the absolute position of an axis down to ±3 µm/m, into its ball and roller runner blocks.
“Accuracy requirements are becoming more exacting in virtually every metal machining application,” says Stefan Dorn, head of advanced engineering and technical product management for linear motion technology. “To meet this challenge, Bosch Rexroth has been using its maintenance-free IMS solutions in upgraded machine tools for more than two years. Since replacing the glass scales, we have achieved five-figure savings in terms of maintenance costs and availability.”
For further information
www.boschrexroth.com

Creaform has announced that it will extend its expertise in NDT to the aerospace industry. By expanding access to its inspection solutions, the company aims to better enable airlines, as well as MRO service companies, to more efficiently perform the evaluations of in-service aircraft safety, while cutting costs and saving downtime.
“As predictive maintenance becomes more prominent, aviation maintenance professionals and aircraft MRO providers are increasingly on the lookout for innovative methods that enable quicker and safer decisions to be made on the outcome of part defects,” says Steeves Roy, NDT product manager at Creaform. “The mapping of external surface defects on aircraft parts, which can prove difficult to obtain using traditional methods – namely hail damage, bird impacts and lightning strikes on the fuselage and wings – can be assessed with 3D scanning. When paired with advanced inspection tools, such a solution cuts down on the operator’s impact on measurements, shortens time to get the final report and reinforces decision making.”
To ensure that the solution matches aviation maintenance industry requirements and properly reflects market needs, Creaform is partnering with major aircraft manufacturers for beta testing. The surface inspection solution dedicated to aerospace applications is set for release in October 2017.
Well-known for its NDT solutions offered to the oil and gas industry, Creaform’s NDT product solution is comprised of its flagship HandyScan 3D portable metrology-grade 3D scanner and its Pipecheck NDT software, both of which allow automatic on-site inspection, detection and characterisation of pipeline defects. With traceable and repeatable inspection data and results, operators can access critical information for making safer decisions.
For further information
www.creaform3d.com