Vision Engineering, a 61-year-old British designer and manufacturer of visual measurement and inspection technologies, has attained ISO 17025:2017 from UKAS and is now a UKAS-accredited calibration laboratory (No. 7706).

The award of ISO 17025:2017 by UKAS is the only mechanism that determines the technical competence and integrity of organisations offering testing and calibration services. ISO 17025:2017 not only contains requirements for the quality management system of the organisation, but includes detailed and specific technical criteria for the operation of the service, including ensuring the competence of company personnel.
Vision Engineering’s temperature-controlled calibration laboratory is now ISO17025:2017 certified for the calibration of measurement stages, instrumentation and artefacts performed at its production complex in Surrey. The full-service manufacturing facility includes a design office, machine shops, paint shop, cleanroom and assembly area. It is replicated in the US, with a wholly-owned, full-service manufacturing facility in Connecticut.
Measurement calibration and technical support is provided through a network of Vision Engineering subsidiaries in Germany, France, Italy, Japan, China, India and Malaysia.
The company supplies its non-contact and contact optical and digital measuring systems to a range of global manufacturers, including those in the medical device, aerospace, automotive and defence sectors, and their multi-tier supply chains.
Mark Curtis, managing director, says: “This is an independent and globally recognised confirmation by UKAS of the consistently high standard of our testing capability and calibration laboratory.
ISO standards confirmation is a key statement of our ability to address the requirements of our manufacturing and analytical customers across the world, and provide certainty of the quality of both our calibrations and calibrated metrology systems.”
For further information www.visioneng.com

The latest iteration of CAM2 2020 software has been unveiled by Faro.

The release includes a variety of performance and user-interface improvements, newly developed features and a new subscription licensing option. Users can now achieve greater control over their full manufacturing process at a lower up-front cost, says the company.
Faro’s subscription model empowers users to benefit from CAM2 with a lower initial investment, while scalability is offered through a flexible licensing model, ensuring users always have access to the latest version of CAM2.
Michael Carris, vice president of product marketing, says: “Faro CAM2 is a powerful, intuitive and application-focused 3D measurement platform designed to help users efficiently fulfil their quality assurance and inspection tasks. We’re pleased to offer a software experience developed directly from customer feedback, based on the metrology needs encountered every day. What’s more, this release strengthens the relationship between quality assurance and production operations with new capabilities that ensure even greater process control.”
New features include an enhanced measurement experience and an updated statistical process control tool which assists users in identifying production data trends that may indicate when a process is moving out of a specified parameter. Being able to predict this kind of error reduces wasted time, scrap and rework, and helps keep production capacity at full strength.
For further information www.faro.com

Renishaw has launched the latest addition to its RKL linear encoder scale family.

The new RKLA substrate mastered encoder scale is designed to adopt the thermal behaviour of the underlying substrate, and is compatible with Renishaw’s Resolute absolute encoder series.
In terms of design, the RKLA substrate mastered encoder scale is a narrow, low cross-sectional area, stainless steel absolute tape scale with 6 mm width and a thickness of just 0.1 mm (0.15 mm with adhesive). The scale is graduated with a 30 µm pitch absolute code, which offers ±5 µm/m accuracy.
Available in lengths up to 21 m, the new scale can be used in both linear and partial arc applications. The robust stainless steel tape scale design offers immunity to solvents, along with the ability to be coiled for easy storage and cut-to-length convenience. RKLA scales can be installed on to the axis substrate by a self-adhesive backing tape, while the scale ends are rigidly fixed by means of adhesive-fastened end clamps, eliminating the need to drill holes. A simple applicator tool is available for quick and easy scale installation.
The RKL family of solutions extends the range of capabilities offered by Renishaw’s encoder scales, allowing the customer to choose an appropriate thermal behaviour for their application. A purpose-designed narrow form factor enables installation in applications where space is limited.
In partial arc applications, RKL encoder scales can be conveniently cut to the required length and mounted on a simple cylindrical substrate with no requirement for complex mounting features or tight-tolerance alignment surfaces.
For further information www.renishaw.com/rkl

Maintenance and repair is an industry segment where ongoing investment in the latest metrology solutions is paramount.

A case in point can be seen at the Glasgow facility of Aerotron Avotec, which specialises in the repair and overhaul of rotary and fixed wing aircraft components for civil and military customers. The company has to work with everything from tiny bearings to shafts, gears, brake components, wheels and large outer casings for aircraft undercarriages. Engineers at the company are tasked with inspecting parts to extremely tight tolerances, which can often mean taking key measurements from difficult-to-access areas.
Having scanned the market for the most suitable solutions to these challenges, Aerotron Avotec invested in an IM-7500 optical imaging measurement system from Keyence, which has enabled measurements to be acquired using just one instrument, and in a fraction of the time previously required. Simultaneously, using the Keyence system has increased the accuracy of measurements, mainly through being able to reduce the amount of human interface involved. Once the information gathered is programmed into the memory of the machine, parts of the same specification can be measured quickly and simply with one or two button clicks.
This functionality greatly reduces the number of man hours that would traditionally be spent on such a task.
A spokesperson for Aerotron Avotec says: “The Keyence solution was recommended to us by a manufacturer whose equipment we overhaul and repair. This was a new departure for us because we hadn´t owned or used any Keyence equipment before. However, having looked at other solutions, the Keyence IM-7500 is the optical image measurement system that we believe most closely matches our requirements.”
For further information www.keyence.co.uk

Insphere, a specialist in metrology, has become a member of the Nuclear Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre, primarily to support the ongoing development of its on-machine measurement and verification technology.

The Bristol-based company been working with the Nuclear AMRC, part of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, since early 2018, on the development of its Baseline system.
Able to provide full verification of a large machine tool in less than one hour, Baseline facilitates regular checks and delivers confidence in performance prior to cutting metal. The Nuclear AMRC hosted the product’s launch in March 2019, after Insphere engineers worked with the centre’s metrology and machining team to test and develop Baseline on its largest machine-tool platforms.
“Becoming a member of the Nuclear AMRC confirms our ongoing commitment to develop innovative methods of improving machine-tool performance through the use of metrology data,” says Ben Adeline, Insphere chief executive. “This will form a critical part of our company’s strategy to develop state-of-the-art products for the advanced manufacturing community.”
As a tier-two member of the Nuclear AMRC, Insphere is able to work closely with the centre’s researchers, tap into other machining and metrology research projects, and build links with manufacturers in the supply chain for nuclear and other quality-critical industries.
Engineers from Insphere are now installing the Baseline system on the Nuclear AMRC’s Soraluce FX12000 horizontal boring machine, and will provide ongoing technical support as part of the company’s membership. Capable of working on parts up to 12 m in length and 5 m in diameter, the Soraluce is the largest machining platform available for collaborative R&D in the UK.
For further information https://namrc.co.uk/