Hunting down the right CMM: locomotive manufacturer decides to eliminate outsourcing costs.

Despite a recent change in ownership, Electro-Motive and its associates have always been a model of stability. But the change gave the company's assembly plants in London, Ontario, and La Grange IL a new challenge--what to do about a coordinate measuring machine (CMM).

The switch in owership meant that Electromotive Canada (EMC) was left without CMM capabilities. As a result, EMC was forced to outsource its CMM requirements at an additional cost to the company.

"It was significant for our organization," says Sergio Marzaro, who currently provides tool and process engineering support to a number of departments at the London facility. "With CMM outsourcing costs increasing, we had no other alternative but to procure our own CMM equipment in support of component validation.

"This included both internally fabricated components as well as externally procured components such as machined traction motor frames, steering beams, coil supports and numerous other items," he says. "The addition of CMM measuring equipment will also supplement our existing gage control recertification requirements."

Before Electro-Motive selected the DEA Epsilon from Xspect Solutions, the company discovered an older LK CMM in its storage facility in La Grange. CMM contacted the software company to discuss the possibility of upgrading the LK CMM and relocating it to the London facility. The only problem was no one knew what condition the machine was in, or whether all the components and details were available.

Keith Mills, Xspect Solution's president, expressed concern about the completeness of the old LK CMM machine and the availability of any missing parts. As an alternative, he invited Electro-Motive to visit Xspect's rebuild and remanufacturing facility in Wixom, MI. There were over 70 CMMs from different manufacturers on the assembly floor of the remanufacturing warehouse.

Electro-Motive eventually decided that purchasing a refurbished CMM would be more cost effective than attempting to rebuild the LK CMM.

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"Obviously we came to the right place," says Marzaro. "Mills had just obtained three identical DEA Epsilons, late 1980s steel structure machine-tool-quality machines. Before we made the visit, he sent us photos of the machine he was recommending.

"We ultimately decided that the Epsilon would meet our needs and Keith worked out a very reasonable upgrade program that provided us a like-new CMM with OpenDMIS software, new Wenzel controls and a number of other special features."

Mills said that Electro-Motive had a specific schedule to meet.

"The CMM was going to be located on the factory floor, and they needed the machine delivered and located on the isolated foundation pad prior to their finishing of the enclosure construction," says Mills.

Those schedules were met, setting the stage for a series of key benefits.

"The successful application of this CMM benefited by the use of several special features," Mills says. "For example, locomotive components are typically larger in size and proper measuring usually requires the technician to physically move around the machine. For that reason, we recommended the use of our HT400 handheld wireless teach pendant that is equipped with a single joystick and Joy-Mouse software control that includes mouse click functions."

In addition, a 32-inch flat screen monitor was provided so the operator can see the software display anywhere around the periphery of the CMM machine.

"We actually visited Xspect Solutions several times during this CMM purchasing program, and were very impressed with the overall level of know-how and capabilities of the organization," says Marzaro.

"Our CMM operation is set up to run on a two-shift operation so two technicians needed to be trained on OpenDMIS software," he says. "The training process is still ongoing, and we we've discovered that we have only scratched the surface of the software capabilities, but we are very comfortable with the learning curve and our technicians have found it to be very user-friendly." Xspect Solutions, www. rsleads.com/809tp-154