Quality articles from June 2005

Quality archives from June 2005

Trump plays to strengths.(FROM THE PUBLISHER)
June 1, 2005... I don't watch "reality" television programs. I don't know who is a "survivor," nor whom the "bachelor" or "bachelorette" have selected, nor joined the excitement of the "amazing race" around the globe. That was my track record until recently....

Coming events.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Calendar)
June 1, 2005... JUNE 21 OUTPERFORM YOUR COMPETITION: INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH AUTOMATION, Irvine, CA. GE Fanuc Automation Americas Inc., http://application.-gefanuc. com/outperform/. 22-23 CALIBRATION PROGRAM FUNDAMENTALS AND BEST PRACTICES,...

Manufacturers spend quality time at Expo.(INDUSTRY NEWS)
June 1, 2005... NORWALK, CT -- Quality Expo, an event focused on quality solutions for manufacturers, brought 5,864 industry professionals together April 19 to 21 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL--an 11% increase in attendance...

FeinFocus earns recognition.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... STAMFORD, CT -- FeinFocus, a manufacturer of high-resolution X-ray inspection systems and tubes, is named to the 2004 Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Program in Connecticut. The annual statewide program recognizes the 50 fastest growing technology...

Machine-tool consumption up 13.5%.(INDUSTRY NEWS)
June 1, 2005... MCLEAN, VA -- U.S. machine-tool consumption (USMTC) continues to rise. This February, the total reached $242.10 million according to the Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association...

Kodak acquires Orex.(INDUSTRY NEWS)
June 1, 2005... ROCHESTER, NY -- Eastman Kodak Co. announces the completion of its acquisition of OREX Computed Radiography Inc., a provider of compact, computed radiography systems for nondestructive testing facilities and specialty medical markets. ...

X-ray systems manufacturer receives award.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... PALO ALTO, CA -- "World X-ray and Vision Inspection Systems in Electronics Manufacturing Markets," a recent analysis from consulting company Frost & Sullivan, selected phoenix|x-ray Systems + Services GmbH as the recipient of the 2004 Product...

ASTM International Committee E08 on Fatigue and Fracture.(ASSOCIATION NEWS)(American Society for Testing and Materials)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... The Fatigue Achievement Award from the ASTM International Committee E08 on Fatigue and Fracture was awarded to Norman E. Dowling, Ph.D., of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, VA. Dowling, a professor in the...

Correction.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Correction Notice)
June 1, 2005... In the article, "Employee Pride Shines Through," (Quality, May 2005) the photos for EMC-Franklin Manufacturing and LSI Logic Manufacturing were inadvertently switched. Quality regrets the error.

Bell Helicopter (Fort Worth, TX), a Textron Co., selects Intercim Inc.'s (Minneapolis) Velocity process execution software solution for deployment in final assembly of the Tiltrotor aircraft.(BUSINESS NEWS)
June 1, 2005... Bell Helicopter (Fort Worth, TX), a Textron Co., selects Intercim Inc.'s (Minneapolis) Velocity process execution software solution for deployment in final assembly of the Tiltrotor aircraft. The manufacturer of commercial and military...

Ball Corp. (Broomfield, CO), supplier of metal and plastic packaging to the beverage and food industries, announces the installment of InfinityQS (Chantilly, VA) SPC software for more than 20 of the company's plants in North America.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Ball Corp. (Broomfield, CO), supplier of metal and plastic packaging to the beverage and food industries, announces the installment of infinityQS (Chantilly, VA) SPC software for more than 20 of the company's plants in North America. The...

SIP has transferred its length comparator business to Helios Messtechnik GmbH.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Societe Genevoise d'Instruments de Physique)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... SIP has transferred its length comparator business to Helios Messtechnik GmbH. Helios has obtained all rights, patents, intellectual property, copyrights and know-how to the length comparators. Helios also will provide service and spare parts....

CGTech.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... CGTech (Irvine, CA), producer of computer numerical control and numerical control (CNC/NC) simulation, verification and analysis software for the manufacturing industry, adds an online user forum to its Web site. The purpose of the forum is to...

Brooks Software (Chelmsford, MA), a provider of real-time applications for enterprises with collaborative manufacturing operations, announces a joint-development agreement with AssurX Inc.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Brooks Software (Chelmsford, MA), a provider of real-time applications for enterprises with collaborative manufacturing operations, announces a joint-development agreement with AssurX Inc. (Morgan Hill, CA), a provider of enterprise quality...

Hardy Instruments (San Diego, CA), producer of components for process weighing systems, signs a new representative to assist Hardy customers in South Korea.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Shin Woo F.A.Co. Ltd)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Hardy Instruments (San Diego, CA), producer of components for process weighing systems, signs a new representative to assist Hardy customers in South Korea. Shin Woo F.A.Co. Ltd. (Seoul, Korea) has experience with process weighing applications,...

Emptoris.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... Emptoris (Burlington, MA) acquires Valuedge, a provider of supplier assessment tools. The acquisition expands Emptoris' enterprise supply management suite by adding tools for improving supplier quality.

BEI Technologies Inc.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2005... California-based BEI Technologies Inc. acquires Newall Electronics Inc., a provider of digital readouts and linear encoders (Leicester, UK). Newall will continue to manufacture in the UK, and the company's sales and service operations will...

Recruiting quality: finding high-quality employees proves difficult.(PROBING THE LIMITS)
June 1, 2005... I've wasted a good part of the past three months interviewing perspective candidates for several positions at my company. The interview process itself is horribly inefficient and the quality issues I've seen with candidates have been shocking...

Weasel word watch: weasel words say nothing but imply everything.(OTHER DIMENSIONS)
June 1, 2005... "Weasel words" come to us from the advertising industry--the lower echelons of it, that is, if you prefer, the bottom feeders. These are words that say nothing but imply everything. They are used extensively during election campaigns and in the...

Optical comparator basics: by magnifying the image, optical comparators prove to be a powerful inspection tool.(QUALITY 101)
June 1, 2005... The profile projector, or optical comparator, has been a powerful tool for inspectors since it was first produced by Baush & Lomb in Rochester, NY. What it did was simple: It magnified the image. It was a simple "shadow graph," a name still...

If the key fits, use it.(BRAIN TEASERS)
June 1, 2005... 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...

Data collection discovers power: operators find integrated data collection solutions in new handheld PC technology.(QUALITY INNOVATIONS)
June 1, 2005... Imagine this: a data collection technology that integrates all of the capabilities you ever have wanted in single handheld unit. According to Paul Iannello, president of I&R Partners LLC (White House, TN), this is not some futuristic data...

Coating thickness gages: a fast evolution: a new generation of gages strengthens the number of manufacturing applications.(QUALITY MEASUREMENT)
June 1, 2005... It may not be as compelling as Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, but it can be said that the coating thickness testing discipline is constantly changing, with one evolutionary line of products followed by another. The result? Diversity in...

Avoid the breaking point: incorrectly tightened fasteners can lead to failure.(QUALITY TEST & INSPECTION)
June 1, 2005... A fastener must be tight enough to do its job. But what is tight enough? What would happen if a bolt broke or the nut came off? Consider the cost of failure--anywhere from minor property damage to major loss of life or equipment. Tightness is...

Strengthen the Six Sigma portfolio: SCOR provides a strategic toolset for the Black Belt's toolbox.(QUALITY MANAGEMENT)(Supply Chain Operations Reference)
June 1, 2005... Two years after Six Sigma deployment, Flexsys (Akron, OH) brought in its Black Belts to focus on the next round of process improvements, the manufacturer asked: What improvements are the most important? Which ones support the company's...

Accelerating Six Sigma rollout: for this pharmaceutical plant, achieving Six Sigma required finding the right mapping and diagramming tool.(QUALITY SOFTWARE & ANALYSIS)
June 1, 2005... It is no secret that achieving the goals of Six Sigma creates opportunities to retain customers, capture new markets and build a reputation for world-class products and services. For one of Allergan's manufacturing plants (Waco, TX), reaching...

Inspection rig maintains competitive edge.(CASE STUDIES)
June 1, 2005... The average 747 contains 171 miles of wiring and five miles of tubing, and is made up of six million parts--half of them fasteners. The first 747 required 75,000 engineering drawings. Given such complexity, people's failure to appreciate the...

Ensuring simplicity and easy operation.(CASE STUDIES)
June 1, 2005... BIC USA Inc. has manufactured writing instruments, lighters and shavers for their quality, affordability and ease-of-use in the U.S. market since 1969. To further strengthen customer loyalty for the company's global brands, BIC USA Inc. has...

Precison Gage Solutions.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... Thread Check, Inc. is a full service gage company offering a complete line of precision thread gages, plain cylindrical gages, custom gages, pipe gages, patented 3-wire thread measuring systems, powerful thread engineering software, measuring...

Hawk 3-axis non-contact measuring system.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... * High accuracy, 3-axis (X, Y, Z) measurements * High precision measuring stage options * Data processing through 3-axis fully geometric PC software or digital readout multifunction microprocessor * Digital and video camera...

MeasuringPAD.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... A rugged hand-held instrument for rapidly collecting, monitoring, and displaying multiple sensor inputs in a wide range of manufacturing, laboratory, plant operations, and quality control applications. Configured and operated through a simple...

WINSPC software.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... Looking for Statistical Process Control software that's easy to configure and use? WINSPC software provides administrators with a color-coded dashboard that automatically displays the status of plant-wide data collection operations on a single...

Extensometers.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... Compatible with nearly any brand of tester. High-accuracy strain measurement for all types of materials testing. Catalog covers tensile, compression and cyclic models, plus many others for specific test. Large variety covers gage lengths from...

Fixed limit gages.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... The new 2005 catalog from Meyer Gage Company offers new and improved Class Z gage pins and sets. In addition to the Class Z gage pins the catalog offers many new products. New offerings for 2005 include Class XX gages, Hex gages, Progressive...

United digital hardness testers.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... United manufactures highly accurate testers for determining hardness of materials: Rockwell, Brinell, Vickers, Microhardness, Universal Hardness Testing. United Tru-Blue II tests in any of the 30 Rockwell scales with 15 regular scales, 15...

COGNEX: machine vision seminar.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... Understanding and Applying Machine Vision * Learn how vision sensors work * See how applications can be set up quick and easily * Find out how to reduce production costs * See live demonstrations, including the new Checker...

itpstyli launches new custom probe configurator.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... itpstyli has introduced an on-line solution that allows CMM operators to design special probe tip configurations. "We wanted to get away from the one-dimensional form that's dominated the industry for so many yeas". It starts with one of 14...

21 CFR Part 11 compliance.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... Manufacturers collecting shop floor quality data in highly regulated environments need to comply with FDA regulations governing electronic signatures. Working with FDA consultants, ASI DataMyte has developed a solution. The Applied Stats v6.0...

Shimpo unveils "JAVELIN" 1000 lbs. force gauges FGV-1000HX (1000 LBS, 500Kg, 5000N).(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... The new JAVELIN 1000 series, with its fast 1000 Hz update rate, is able to capture the highest force peaks. JAVELIN features a unique180 degree flip displays, permitting the user to read the display right-side up with variable display update...

Guide offering solutions in video inspection and machine vision.(WEB/LITERATURE REVIEW)(Advertisement)
June 1, 2005... Aven's Tools & Equipment Catalog is an invaluable guide offering a broad selection of products for Measuring and inspection, Machine Vision, Assembly and Automation. Products offered include Microscopes, Video inspection Systems, Flourescent...

Data acquisition systems.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... DAPstudio is PC-based measurement software that allows operators to create data acquisition systems. The product is Windows-based and builds systems to run on the company's hardware. It can complement or replace third-party development systems....

Spectrophotometer.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... The V-7000 series of UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer is for applications from 175 to 3,300 nanometers. The product can resolve peaks of less than 0.5 nanometer. With a floating casting system, the product can isolate the optics from vibrational...

Contour measuring instrument.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... The Surfcom 1900SD/DX is a surface and contour measuring instrument. The product has a non-contact drive and no lead screw or gear box on the linear motor, which ensures vibration-free operation. The measuring instrument operates at up to 3...

Annunciator.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... Panalarm Series 90A annunciator visually displays alarms, timestamps alarms with the sequence of events, and has serial and Ethernet capabilities, which allow manufacturers to centralize alarms from multiple locations. The product is available...

3-D scanning software.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... ScanWorks software interprets 3-D data from a sensor to define shapes and contours in applications such as prototyping, reverse engineering and production validation. The software acquires data at more than 23,000 points per second and can...

Laser kit.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... The Laser Microgage kit has a 90-Line laser-squaring attachment for checking machine beds, vertical cutting machinery, roll parallelism and geometric parameters. The laser beam enters the 90-Line through a port in the front and exits a side...

Multifunction portable scope.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... The dual-channel, multifunction DSO/DMM is battery operated with a 5 MHz bandwidth and 50 ms/sec sampling rate. The portable scope has a DSO section with an 8-bit resolution and a record length of 512 bytes for a single shot/glitch capture. The...

Mass spectrometer.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... The HiQuad quadrupole mass spectrometer has Quadera software and is designed for applications such as surface science, plasma research, isotope ratio MS and trace gas analysis. The device has measurement speeds up to 0.125 millisecond per...

Presence sensor.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... Checker 101 can visually detect the presence or absence of items during the manufacturing process such as the cap and label on a bottle, the lugs on a truck wheel or all the tablets in a blister pack. The vision sensor can analyze more than 400...

Chip shooter analysis.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... CmController Compact5 analyzes chip shooter machine capability, checking the basic settings and functions of equipment such as clamping, sensors, nozzles, cameras and feeders to identify and correct failures. The system is mobile and designed...

Checkweigher.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... The Sonic 350-LW Lift-N-Weigh Checkweighers are for items that cannot be weighed with a standard checkweigher. The instrument performs stopmotion weighing of packaged products weighing from 10 to 200 grams with accuracies up to [+ or -] 0.5...

DRO measurement system.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... Optiflex QCZ-2000 Granite Z Series measurement and inspection system is a turnkey system that has color video, zoom optics and Metronics QC200 Series geometric measurement digital readout (DRO). The DRO-based measurement system can be upgraded...

Software for checkweighing data.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... CheckWeigher Data Collector is software that collects, analyzes and summarizes data from high-speed checkweighers. The software samples and analyzes weight readings in real-time and performs extended calculations to generate more than 25...

Calibration lab software.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... Gage InSite CLE management software is for commercial calibration labs. The software offers fully integrated customer estimating and invoicing, automated work-order creation on receipt of equipment, complete tracking of both work performed and...

Rotating scanner.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
June 1, 2005... The ECS-1 Mini Rotating Scanner for airframe-fastener and bolt-hole inspections finds indications of defect amplitude and circumferential location. With a scan rate of 1,500 rpm, the product ensures full-surface coverage at normal insertion...

A history of solutions: L.S. Starrett chief builds on 125 years of expertise.(VIEW FROM THE TOP)(Interview)
June 1, 2005... The L.S. Starrett Co. is nestled in the hills of western Massachusetts. The company started when Laroy S. Starrett invented and patented the combination square in 1877. In 1880, he formed his own company and since then the company has produced...