Home  Applications Automotive Applications GM Saturn - Spares No Effort to Ensure Quality
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GM Saturn - Spares No Effort to Ensure Quality |
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In its Spring Hill, Tennessee, plant, Saturn Corp., a wholly owned
subsidiary of General Motors Corp., spares no effort or expense to
ensure the quality of the body panels for its vehicles. Portable CMMs
from CimCore perform crucial roles as they check the tooling and the
way components fit into those tools. “Statistically speaking, we are
doing significantly better since we began using the portable CMMs,”
said Frank McMahon, Body Systems maintenance team leader in fabrication
maintenance.
The portable CMMs “are used to check relationships among parts when
clamped into a tool for welding,” said Dave Schutte, inspection
technician for the Underbody Resource Team.
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“We rely very much on these
systems for checks of part surfaces against their CAD models. As
needed, we check weld-assembly tools after they are installed,” he
continued. “We also check parts from stamping suppliers and
weld-assemblers.”
"The portable CMM gives you all kinds of data for analysis
and speeds up the resolution of problems."
In the body sides and framing unit, “the portable CMMs are used to
verify the true locations, in reference to the car’s coordinates, of
specific parts,” said Bill Gilliam, framing and side quality
technician. “We use them to check whether the part was made to its
design specifications and to fine-tune the tools.”
“For me the most important thing is the flexibility of being able to
use the systems anywhere and to measure anything,” Mr. Schutte said.
“Reaching inside, behind and underneath can usually be done only by a
portable CMM.”
Rework is minimized because reaction time of portable CMMs to problems
is nearly immediate. A big factor in the amount of rework done in a
factory is the time taken to report defects. The shorter this lag time,
the fewer questionable units are produced.
“The portable CMM has made my job a whole lot more interesting and kept
me much more involved with what I am doing,” said Mr. Gilliam. “A check
fixture tells you if something is fitting and where it is not, but
never why. The portable CMM gives you all kinds of data for analysis
and speeds up the resolution of problems.” |
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