"Basically, the (portable) CMMs are at the heart of the business here."

Lucas uses the Delcam software and the portable arms to certify that the tools it makes conform to the computer models from which they are generated. “Special emphasis is given to surface contours, scribe lines that mark the perimeters of parts, and tool location holes, especially bushings,” Mr. Westfall said.

The inspection processes at Lucas must stay synchronized with production. “Dimensional accuracy and repeatability are important, of course,” Mr. Westfall observed. “But equally important for us are speed in set-up, and fast and easy operation. We also need the ability to handle engineering data such as CATIA and IGES files, to manipulate the geometric data, to do the statistical analysis and to generate reports,” he added. “PowerINSPECT and the new arm give us all of this. Basically, the CMMs are at the heart of the business here.”

The company even does some reverse engineering with the arms. “We take a few dozen points with the probe, run them through PowerINSPECT, and generate a new computer model,” he said. “Dimensionally, the result is very close to the original, no more than a few thousandths off at any point.”

“When we got the first inspection arm we had to sell the customers on using it, instead of the gantry CMMs they were familiar with,” Mr. Westfall recalled. “With PowerINSPECT, we made believers out of them very quickly.”