Midland Metrology says it is marking the company’s 30th anniversary this year with continued growth and expansion.

Trading locally, nationally and internationally, the company is a supplier of both new and used precision measuring equipment. A Midlands-based showroom hosts a wide variety of machines, including profile projectors, video machines, hardness testers and granite products, all available to view and demonstrate.
Having recently taken on three new members of staff, Midland Metrology is announcing the launch of its new, purpose-built inspection room, which is in addition to the company’s existing inspection and calibration facility. The latest addition to the team, Andy Holt, formerly of AC Inspection, will be heading up the new inspection department. He has a total of 25 years’ experience in quality and inspection, and with his knowledge and expertise in this field, is well equipped to run the new department.
All types of subcontract inspection and measurement work is undertaken by Midland Metrology, including machined parts, pressings and fabrications. The service includes fully detailed spreadsheet reporting. The company says it happy to discuss any specific requests and solve any measurement issues.
Midland Metrology’s showroom in Coventry is within easy reach of the M6, M1 and M40 motorways. Visitors can come along and meet team members, who will be pleased to demonstrate the company’s capabilities and discuss any inspection and measurement requirements. All quotations are provided without obligation.
For further information www.midland-metrology.co.uk

The University of Huddersfield’s £40m EPSRC Future Metrology Hub has joined Shanghai University to build a new Sino-UK smart metrology centre in China
Senior delegates from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU), including its vice president professor Xi LiFeng, recently paid a fact-finding visit to the EPSRC Future Metrology Hub, located in the University of Huddersfield’s Centre for Precision Technologies, and met its director and professor of precision metrology, Dame Xiangqian (Jane) Jiang (pictured).

During the visit, the University of Huddersfield’s vice chancellor, professor Bob Cryan, signed a memorandum of understanding with professor Xi. The memorandum laid a grounding for future international co-operation in scientific research and exchange programmes for students and teachers to take place between the two institutions in the field of metrology. Also planned in the near future is a visit to SJTU by professor Cryan and the university’s pro-vice chancellor, international, professor Dave Taylor.
Professor Xi expressed his university’s keen interest in building a collaborative centre in Shanghai with the EPSRC Future Metrology Hub.
“The Future Metrology Hub is a leading research centre in metrology whose expertise is well recognised in academia and industry,” he said. “SJTU, with its strengths in engineering, is looking forward to complementing research interests and strengths with the University of Huddersfield’s Future Metrology Hub to build a world-class metrology centre in Shanghai that can serve the manufacturing industry in China and the UK.”
According to the 2018 Academic Ranking of World Universities, SJTU is 29th in the world for engineering, while also being one of China’s top research-oriented institutions, and the University of Huddersfield said it was honoured to welcome its visitors to the campus.
For further information https://research.hud.ac.uk

Third Dimension has launched a countersink measurement solution for its GapGun range.

Said to be the first of its kind on the market, the solution can calculate the dimensions of a countersink hole to accurately predict the flushness of fasteners once fitted. What’s more, the innovation can operate in real time on the production lines of aircraft, cars and vans, and in energy and marine markets.
Last year, in the commercial aerospace industry alone, some 1481 planes were manufactured with a total estimated 296 million countersinks. The average requirement is to measure 5% of each aircraft’s 200,000 countersink holes, meaning 10,000 countersink holes would have to be measured for every commercial aircraft produced. Done manually, these checks rely heavily on the competencies of the operator and are extremely time consuming. Conversely, Third Dimension’s patented systems takes just a couple of seconds per measurement, with no possibility of operator error.
The GapGun Countersink Inspection System enables the prediction of fastener flushness much faster and more accurately than mechanical gauges, with the addition of an auditable data trail. Importantly, tolerance bands can be preset, against which the measurement is recorded, before the result can be read on screen or automatically sent to a PC to enable comparison and analysis.
Countersinks are notoriously difficult to measure; one of the main challenges for manufacturers is finding a way that considers how to calculate the centre of the hole. The Third Dimension solution addresses this issue with a specially designed stand-off integrated into the sensor that enables the system to calculate the hole centre and therefore check the required dimensions before the fastener is fixed in place.
For further information www.third.com

Poole-based subcontractor Alpha Precision Engineering has recently installed two Aberlink Xtreme CNC CMMs.

“Our first manual Aberlink CMM has proved to be easy to use, very accurate and ultra-reliable. Therefore, as the launch of Aberlink’s Xtreme CMMs coincided with a sharp upturn in our business, we placed an order for two of the new machines,” says quality manager Rob Allen. “As Aberlink’s Xtreme CMMs feature temperature compensation and are designed to operate both in inspection departments and on the shop floor, we have installed both of the new Xtreme CMMs in our production facility.
“Our new shop-floor Xtreme CMMs are now in regular use by our production personnel for in-process inspection checks and verifying first-off parts,” he continues. “Rather than lose time taking machined parts to our inspection department, fast and accurate CMM inspection results can now be achieved close to the point of manufacture. This quick feedback enables adjustments to be made when component sizes deviate from nominal conditions.
“Our quality staff also use our new Aberlink CMMs for final inspection routines and for other applications. The CNC nature of the new Xtreme CMMs enables them to be loaded with batches of machined components; the relevant program is then selected and, following the press of a button, a rapid, fully automated CNC measuring routine is started. In addition to storing the captured data related to individual measured features of each component in the batch, when required, we are able to generate detailed inspection reports for each part.”
For further information www.aberlink.com