Quality articles from April 2006

Quality archives from April 2006

Adding up the losses.(FROM THE PUBLISHER)(DaimlerChrysler AG)(Ford Motor Co.)(General Motors Corp.)
April 1, 2006... It just doesn't add tip. There is no way that the layoffs at Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. or DaimlerChrysler are not going to negatively affect the economy. U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao recently said these losses would have no...

Coming events.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Calendar)
April 1, 2006... MAY 2006 1-3 ASQWORLD CONFERENCE, Milwaukee, WI. The American Society for Quality, (800) 248-1946. http://wcqi.asq.org 1-2 PROCESS MAPPING AND PROCESS IMPROVEMENT, San Diego....

Industrial manufacturers report renewed economic optimism.(INDUSTRY NEWS)
April 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Large, U.S.-based industrial manufacturers report renewed optimism about the U.S. and world economies over the next 12 months, despite continued concern about high energy prices, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' Manufacturing...

Errata.(Correction notice)
April 1, 2006... * In the February 2006 issue, the photo published in "Developing a Formal Calibration Plan," (page 22) was inaccurate. At right is the correct photo of Quality Calibration Service Inc.'s calibration lab. * In the same issue in "Mark...

Mahr Federal achieves ISO 17025 accreditation for field service group.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... PROVIDENCE, RI -- Mahr Federal's Scope of Accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 by the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) has been expanded to include the company's Field Service Group. Qualified Mahr Federal field service...

Machine tool consumption up 8.4% in 2005.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... MCLEAN, VA -- December U.S. machine tool consumption totaled $311.03 million, according to the Association For Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association (AMTDA). This total, as reported by companies...

Arco Electronics.(Moved to a larger facility)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Arco Electronics (Camarillo, CA) has moved to a larger facility in Southern California. The move to this 20,000 square foot facility will allow the company to expand its inventory. Along with the move, Arco Electronics announces John Drake will...

Pilgrim Software Inc.(Animas Corp has gone live with Pilgrim Software)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Pilgrim Software Inc. (Tampa, FL) announces that Animas Corp. (West Chester, PA) has gone live with Pilgrim Software's SmartCAPA quality and compliance management solutions. SmartCAPA is a 100% Web-based nonconformance/customer complaint and...

American Sensor Technologies.(Acquired Macro Sensors)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... American Sensor Technologies (Landing, NJ) has acquired in its entirety the capital stock of Macro Sensors, LVDT manufacturer innovators. Macro Sensors (Pennsauken, NJ) will continue to operate under its own brand name from its existing...

Feinfocus.(Awarded for Business Development Strategy Leadership)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Feinfocus (Stamford, CT) a Comet business unit and manufacturer of high-resolution X-ray inspection systems, was awarded the Frost & Sullivan Award for Business Development Strategy Leadership. The annual award is given to companies that...

ASI DataMyte Inc.(Extended partnership with TQMsoft s.c)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... ASI DataMyte Inc. (Minneapolis) has expanded its distributor network in Eastern Europe in partnership with TQMsoft s.c. (Krakow, Poland). TQMsoft specializes in quality systems training and consulting and provides overall quality solutions. It...

American Systems Registrar.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... American Systems Registrar (Grand Rapids, MI) moved into a new headquarters in southeast Grand Rapids, MI. The company also has foreign affiliates in Asia and the Middle East.

McBain Instruments.(territory expansion for the Leica Microsystems dealership )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... McBain Instruments (Chatsworth, CA) announces the territory expansion for the Leica Microsystems dealership. McBain Instruments has now added Arizona, New Mexico and West Texas territories for Leica Mircosystems Inc. The southwestern regional...

National Machinery LLC.(Sales referral agreement with Johnson Thread-View Systems LLC)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... National Machinery LLC (Tiffin, OH) announces the signing of a sales referral agreement for North America with Johnson Thread-View Systems LLC (Bloomfield, CT). National Machinery will represent the Thread-View system throughout the country...

Manufacturing Data Systems Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI) and Hurco Companies Inc. (Indianapolis) have agreed to extend their long-term collaboration agreement.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Manufacturing Data Systems Inc. (Ann Arbor, MI) and Hurco Companies Inc. (Indianapolis) have agreed to extend their long-term collaboration agreement for the development of various control-related software technologies.

Carl Zeiss MicroImaging Inc.(BUSINESS NEWS)
April 1, 2006... Carl Zeiss MicroImaging Inc. (Thornwood, NY) announces a major redesign and re-launch of its E-Comerce site--www.ShopZeiss.com.

Micro-Metric.(Alliance with HTL Industries Inc)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Micro-Metric (San Jose, CA) announces an alliance with HTL, a Tokyo-based distributor of semiconductor and flat panel display equipment. The two companies will collaborate to market the Micro-Metric VPM 1500, a fully-automated critical...

Janos Technology Inc.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Janos Technology Inc. (Keene, NH) appoints Karl Martinson to business development manager for defense and aerospace. Martinson has a broad base knowledge of the optical fabrication technology and extensive experience in managing strategic...

Janet R Buckingham, (San Antonio, TX) a principal analyst in the Fuels and Lubricants Research Division at Southwest Research Institute, has been elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA).(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Janet R Buckingham, (San Antonio, TX) a principal analyst in the Fuels and Lubricants Research Division at Southwest Research Institute, has been elected a fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA). The honorary title of fellow is...

Glastonbury Southern Gage.(Appoints Richard Vallance )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Glastonbury Southern Gage (Erin, TN) appoints Richard Vallance as national sales manager. He will be responsible for all sales and marketing activity for the company. Vallance joined the company in 2002 as regional sales manager for the...

Foster-Miller Inc.(Dr. Dean E. Calcagni has Appointed )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Foster-Miller Inc. (Waltham, MA) announces that Dr. Dean E. Calcagni has joined the senior staff as director of medical and life sciences applications. Calcagni recently retired after 26 years as a U.S. Army physician.

Process Equipment Co.(Larry Ewald Retired )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Larry Ewald announces his retirement after 27 years as president of Process Equipment Co. (PECo, Tipp City, OH). Michael van Haaren has been appointed president. For the past four years he served as vice president and chief operating officer....

Wera Tools Inc.(Ralph Tallant Jr. Appointed)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Wera Tools Inc. (Stoney Creek, Ontario) hires Ralph Tallant Jr. as market development manager--western United States. In this newly created position, Tallant is responsible for all sales and marketing efforts in the western U.S.

Analytical Sensors and Instruments Ltd.(Brian Williams Promoted )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Analytical Sensors and Instruments Ltd. (ASI, Sugar Land, TX) announces the promotion of Brian Williams to executive vice president of North American operations and general manager. Prior to his promotion, Williams was ASI's director of sales...

Dyneon LLC.(Appointments )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Dyneon LLC (Oakdale, MN) appoints David Tarantino to product manager, Fluoroplastics Group. Taratino will be responsible for management and coordination of all fluoroplastic products across U.S. market segments, as well as the supply of...

SATO purchases Checkpoint's Barcode Systems (BCS) businesses.(Checkpoint Systems Inc)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... CHARLOTTE, NC -- SATO, a company in the Automatic Identification and Data Collection (AIDC) industry and barcode printing, labeling, and EPC/RFID solutions, has successfully completed the acquisition of Checkpoint Systems Inc.'s former BCS...

Maxcor completes purchase of Ex-Cell-O.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... NEW YORK -- Maxcor Inc. has completed the purchase of the global operations of Ex-Cell-O, which includes locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France and China. Ex-Cell-O, a producer of machine tools and systems...

The Association for Operations Management (APICS, Alexandria, VA) announces the 2006 board of directors.(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Association for Operations Management (APICS, Alexandria, VA) announces the 2006 board of directors. The board took office January 1. 2005 APICS Board of Directors President, Nicholas M. Testa President-Elect, Joseph F. Shedlawski...

SME Education Foundation.(Small and medium sized companies)
April 1, 2006... The SME Education Foundation (SME-EF, Dearborn, MI), a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing manufacturing education, and Project Lead the Way (PLTW), a not-for-profit organization that promotes pre-engineering courses for middle and...

Apples to oranges.(QUALITY MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Dear Editor, I've been in quality management for 20 years, in companies mostly related to semiconductor equipment. As the folks in the quality world celebrate more than $4 billion of spending ("$4.4 Billion and Growing," Quality Magazine,...

Economic suicide.(QUALITY MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Dear Editor, A recent article from the Los Angeles Times read, "2005 Trade Gap Tops $725 Billion." This is a $725 billion lie. There is no trade gap. We traded 725 billion dollars worth of our productive wealth to other countries to...

Progress being made.(QUALITY MAILBAG)(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2006... Dear Editor, I am a Chinese American and I just visited China one month ago. I cannot agree with you more in regard to the United States making head waves in pushing China to provide better treatment to the workers. I am also quite pleased...

Quality vs. short-term profits: perhaps the negative effect that short-term pressures have on your business can be turned into an opportunity to improve competitiveness.
April 1, 2006... I think I'm starting to get a better understanding of how to control the negative effects that short-term pressures have on quality and the long-term health of businesses. Deming's "Second Deadly Disease" was Emphasis on Short-Term...

Are you beating your gages to death? Before rejecting your gages, eliminate other possible causes of gage wear.(evaluation of gages)
April 1, 2006... There are a number of rituals followed in the quality field that drive gage makers crazy. The first one involves gages that are rejecting parts. The ritual: reject the gages. Another one involves gages that appear to wear out too quickly. The...

Speak a common language: GD&T helps manufacturers overcome interference conditions.(QUALITY 101)(Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing)
April 1, 2006... Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) is the language of communicating dimensional information on a product part print or process drawing. Manufacturers find it valuable to precisely communicate functional product characteristics,...

How Six Sigma helps a lean project.
April 1, 2006... Anyone who has faced a production problem with a need to solve it by using production data can relate to the notion of a brain teaser. The brain teasers presented here are based on real-world situations encountered by workers in manufacturing...

Trace leaks with hydrogen gas: leaks can be small and hidden. A new hydrogen test method is doing a better job of finding them.(QUALITY INNOVATIONS)(new tester, the H2000, from Sensistor Technologies Inc)
April 1, 2006... The demands placed on electronic leak testers can be summed up in four words: high, low, little and large. These systems need to have high sensitivity and low incidents of false positives or worse, missed leaks. They need to find little leaks,...

Why air gaging still matters: after 90 years, air gaging remains the correct choice for hole condition measurement.(QUALITY MEASUREMENT)
April 1, 2006... After measuring holes for 90 years, air gages remain a powerful metrology tool. Air gages use compressed air to measure changes in pressure or flow rates. Such tests can determine attributes and measure distances between precision orifices and...

Choose the right seal: in leak testing applications, the seal is critical to the reliability and life of the connector.(QUALITY TEST & INSPECTION)(Cover story)
April 1, 2006... The seal in any connector is critical to the reliable long-term function of the connector. Seals that wear or degrade quickly need to be changed frequently, adding to the cost of the connector. Several factors contribute to how the seals...

Optimize coordinate metrology on the shop floor: fixtures and automation systems are integral metrology applications.(QUALITY SOFTWARE & ANALYSIS)(coordinate measuring machines)
April 1, 2006... The primary reason for installing and operating coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) on the shop floor is to keep process quality under control, preventing the production of defective parts. Time is a critical factor. To reduce measurement...

Industry standards take flight: accreditation bodies ensure auditor and registrar competence and experience in the aerospace industry.(QUALITY MANAGEMENT)
April 1, 2006... The aerospace industry wasn't the first to develop its own ISO 9001-based standards, but it may take the prize for implementing the most rigorous process for accreditation and certification to its QMS standards. The process is designed to meet...

Gaging technology: helps in testing application.(CASE STUDIES)(Instron Corp.'s Gage-Chek)
April 1, 2006... Suzanne de Lemos-Williams, senior mechanical engineer, and her colleagues at Instron Corp. (Norwood, MA) are accustomed to challenging assignments. De Lemos-Williams and the rest of Instron's 12-person Custom Engineering (CE) department take on...

Spectrum analyzer.(B&K PRECISION CORP'S Product )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Model 2658 is a compact, handheld, PC-compatible 8.5 GHz spectrum analyzer. Weighing 4 pounds including battery, the portable unit can evaluate lower frequency applications such as W-CDMA, CDMA, GSM, PDC, PHS, Wireless LAN, 802.11b/g and...

Digital force gage.(Imada Inc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The handheld ZP gage accurately measures any push/pull force such as instrument key pressure, spring tension or peel resistance, and records and processes 1,000 actual measurements per second and can transmit them through its USB output. It has...

Compliance software.(IBS America Inc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... CompliantPro is a solution that manages all aspects of compliance including document control, notifications and alerts, escalation and employee training, ensuring that information is available and accessible. Easily configured to any...

Hardness testing.(Testing system from Leco Corp.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The AMH43 automated hardness testing system has unique patent-pending visual method for sample reconstruction, plus advanced image-recognition technology that allows operators to analyze information. Designed for a number of applications,...

Laser line sensor.(LMI Technologies Inc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The digital imaging laser line sensor works for high-resolution 3D cross sectional profile scanning of up to 150 points across a horizontal measuring line. The Ethernet-ready UDP protocol Class II EyeCON laser line sensor has on-the-spot...

Document management.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(The product manages the flow of information)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... As an open document management system, out-of-the-box or customized, Visual Vault is easy to configure and intuitive to use. It allows operators to collaborate and share documents and files securely worldwide. It efficiently organizes and...

Shaft measurement.(Wearth Inc.)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The ShaftScope scanner has production-integrated fast, precise and reliable series inspection of shafts. The FlatLight provides an extremely sharp image of the object edges of round parts in the video live image. The measuring range of these...

Radiometric cameras.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(M7800 and M7815 cameras)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The M7800 and M7815 cameras have a resolution of 320 by 240 UFPA detector with a 60-Hertz refresh rate. The cameras have a measuring range of -20 to 500 C, on-board storage of 1,300 images, and a 3.5-inch articulating LCD that allows easy...

Code-free testing.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(Designed to test most GUI or browser application )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Designed to test most GUI or browser application "out-of-the-box," TestDrive Gold captures and interrogates individual objects and components that make up a screen or Web page. This eliminates reliance on the precise reproduction of the...

Applied stats.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(Applied Stats 6.3 )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Service Pack 1 (SP1) for the Applied Stats 6.3 software suite consists of updated versions of Applied Stats, Analyst, Enterprise Monitor (ASEM) and device drivers. The database does not require updates so customers can use SP1 without...

Pre-calibration program.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(Petroil Quant )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... Petroil Quant is a pre-calibration program to help analysts in the petrochemical and petroleum industries meet various analytical requirements. It can quantify up to 24 elements in a variety of automotive fuels, lubricants and heavy residual...

EDM machines.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(electrical discharge machining)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The SP-Series wire electrical discharge machining (EDM) machines provide advanced features for general part manufacturing, aerospace and medical applications. This is accomplished through the Wizard control technology for improving part...

Versatile velocimeter.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(LSV-300 )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The LSV-300 laser surface velocimeter works for noncontact, online measurement, inspection and control of velocity and length in continuous process industries such as steel, metals, paper, plastic, glass and building materials. It can...

CNC marking.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(marking devices)(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... This 3-in-1 CNC marking machine has a choice of three modular marking head options, to dot peen, scribe mark, or laser mark fragile or very hard materials. This marking system can make part numbers, lot numbers, QC marks, company logos,...

Alignment kit.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)(Microgage 2000 linear universal alignment kit )(Brief article)
April 1, 2006... The Microgage 2000 linear universal alignment kit measures and realigns rolls and Web systems, uneven travel on CNC machine tools, extrusion casings and poorly aligned bore tubes. Engineers and maintenance personnel can perform their own...