Quality articles from September 2005

Quality archives from September 2005

Examine China's motives.(FROM THE PUBLISHER)(Column)
September 1, 2005... I am apprehensive about doing business in China. Long-time readers of this column know that while I maintain an attitude of "making things where it most makes sense," I have warned against wholesale moving business operations to China and...

Coming events.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Calendar)
September 1, 2005... COMING EVENTS OCTOBER 5 SEAMLESS SOUND AND VIBRATION SYSTEMS: MODAL ANALYSIS AND SOUND POWER. Tigard, OR. Larson Davis Inc., (716) 684-0002 ext. 2718. 5-7 SMMA 2005 FALL ...

Long-term vehicle quality improves.(INDUSTRY NEWS)
September 1, 2005... WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA -- The automotive industry records a 12% improvement in long-term vehicle quality, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2005 Vehicle Dependability Study (VDS). The study, which measures problems experienced by...

National Tooling and Machining Association.(ASSOCIATION NEWS)(appointment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... David Dysinger, president of Dysinger Inc., is installed as 2005 Chairman of the National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA, Ft. Washington, MD). Dysinger has been involved with the NTMA for 25 years.

International Automotive Oversight Bureau.(ASSOCIATION NEWS)(appointment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... The International Automotive Oversight Bureau (IAOB, Detroit) appoints Michael Brennan to director of the organization. Brennan will assist with oversight responsibilities related to ISO/TS 16949: 2002. IAOB oversees ISO/TS 16949...

American Welding Society.(ASSOCIATION NEWS)(appointment)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Richard J. DePue joins the American Welding Society (AWS, Miami) as managing director of education services. DePue brings more than 20 years experience in the welding industry to AWS.

Wilcox to create interface for Lockheed.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... ELGIN, IL -- Wilcox Associates Inc., a Hexagon Metrology company and supplier of dimensional measurement software for coordinate measuring machines, is creating an interface to communicate between the PC-DMIS Geometric measurement software and...

Polytec Inc.(PEOPLE NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Polytec Inc. (Tustin, CA) hires Jim Nieters as Midwest regional sales manager. Nieters will work in the Detroit regional office. The company sells advanced, light-based measurement systems.

CGI.(PEOPLE NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Alex Luciani is appointed as sales and marketing manager for the paid parts division of CGI (Minneapolis). Luciani will promote CGI's technology and service to a variety of industries.

Intertek ETL Entela.(PEOPLE NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Intertek ETL Entela hires Helen Xiang, who has a doctorate degree in material science and engineering, as chief metallurgical engineer for the testing and engineering division in Grand Rapids, MI.

Waterloo Industries Inc.(PEOPLE NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Waterloo Industries Inc. (Waterloo, IA) promotes Gary Marcus to vice president, marketing and business development, and Deonna Fritz to vice president, new product development. Marcus has been with the tool storage products manufacturing...

Kuka Robotics Corp.(PEOPLE NEWS)
September 1, 2005... Global manufacturer of industrial robots, Kuka Robotics Corp. (Clinton Township, MI), appoints Joseph Campbell as director of strategic alliances for North America. Campbell brings more than 24 years of automation experience to the company.

Linpac Materials Handling.(PEOPLE NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Linpac Materials Handling (Georgetown, KY) announces the addition of Jason LaRoy as senior manufacturing project engineer, and Brigitte Mader as account representative for the beverage industry.

NVision.(PEOPLE NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... NVision (Southlake, TX), a supplier of laser scanners for reverse engineering and quality control, appoints Giles Gaskell as director of business development. Gaskell's responsibilities include expanding the company's business to new industries...

MQC Labs.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Maryland Q C Laboratories Inc.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Maryland Q C Laboratories Inc. (Belcamp, MD), changes its name to MQC Labs to better reflect its ability to service both national and international companies. The independent nondestructive examination and testing company has done work in many...

Stratasys.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Stratasys (Minneapolis), a rapid prototyping system maker, receives its largest order to date. The order, from a major global automobile manufacturer, is a three-year equipment rental package valued in excess of $1 million, according to...

Micro Control Co. (Minneapolis), manufacturer of automatic test equipment and burn-in systems, receives an order for an HPB-5A from DSL Labs Inc. (Fremont, CA).(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Micro Control Co. (Minneapolis), manufacturer of automatic test equipment and burn-in systems, receives an order for an HPB-5A from DSL Labs Inc. (Fremont, CA). The product is a high-power burn-in system that provides individual temperature...

Maxcor Inc. (New York) and Silver Point LLC purchase UNOVA's Cincinnati Lamb Group, a provider of machining systems and production equipment.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Maxcor Inc. (New York) and Silver Point LLC purchase UNOVA's Cincinnati Lamb Group, a provider of machining systems and production equipment. Maxcor acquired the global operations of Cincinnati Lamb for approximately $60 million.

Verisurf Software Inc. and Faro Technologies Inc. announce an expanded facility in Anaheim, CA.(BUSINESS NEWS)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Verisurf Software Inc. and Faro Technologies Inc. announce an expanded facility in Anaheim, CA. The companies' products include portable measurement systems and real-time model-based inspection software.

Sypris Test and Measurement Inc.(electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic conformance)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... Sypris Test and Measurement Inc. (Orlando) adds electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic conformance (EMC) testing capabilities to its suite of testing and calibration services. The services are available through Sypris facilities...

Near-term business conditions to improve.(Metalforming companies are expecting a slight improvement in near-term business conditions)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... CLEVELAND -- Metalforming companies are expecting a slight improvement in near-term business conditions, according to the July 1, 2005 Precision Metalforming Association (PMA) Business Conditions Report. The report is an economic indicator for...

ASQ Quality Index shows customer expectations rising.(American Society for Quality)
September 1, 2005... MILWAUKEE -- The Quality Index research study, conducted by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and derived from the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), provides evidence of a dramatic drop in service quality along with an apparent...

Consultant referral network launched.(INDUSTRY NEWS)(Minnesota Council for Quality)(Michigan Quality Council)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2005... MINNETONKA, MN -- The Minnesota Council for Quality in cooperation with the Michigan Quality Council, the Ohio Partnership for Excellence and the Wisconsin Forward Award, launches the Consultant Referral Network. The Consultant Referral...

Some leak disagreements.(QUALITY MAILBAG)(Letter to the Editor)
September 1, 2005... Dear Editor, I was quite surprised when I read the article, "Improve Pressure Decay Leak Testing," (Quality, March 2005, p. 44). Although I agreed with some of the statements made, I felt others were misleading. On page 44, the author...

Goal setting: a potentially dangerous exercise: the annual exercise of setting strategic goals for the upcoming year can be counterproductive.(PROBING THE LIMITS)
September 1, 2005... Being an ardent Deming believer, I'm facing my annual internal philosophical struggle with annual goal setting. We just finished our fiscal year and like most companies, we have developed and announced our goals for the new fiscal year. Is...

On-site calibration: having the lab come to you is not always practical.(OTHER DIMENSIONS)
September 1, 2005... There's a reason companies build fancy laboratories for calibrating gages and instruments. They have little or no choice in the matter. Good metrology, ANSI and ISO standards all require controls on the calibration environment, otherwise the...

The same, but different.(BRAIN TEASERS)
September 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...

Multitasking with multisensor measurement: sensors reduce setup and speed inspection.(QUALITY MEASUREMENT)
September 1, 2005... Multitasking and rapid changeovers are not just concerns for process engineers anymore. Today, they are important considerations for quality engineers too. As manufacturers continue to move quality control from the lab and integrate it into...

Managing multisensor technology for CMMs: Multisensor CMMs provide flexible measurements in production and quality control.(QUALITY MEASUREMENT)
September 1, 2005... In the past several years, the metrology demands of both the shop floor and the quality inspection laboratory have led to the development of coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) that are not only extremely accurate and precise but also highly...

Invisible to the human eye: measuring microhardness and evaluating material properties for industrial quality control applications increases product quality.(QUALITY TEST & INSPECTION)
September 1, 2005... Material property analysis and hardness measurement provide a broad spectrum of data to a wide variety of markets. Traditionally hardness has been defined as the resistance of a material to permanent penetration by another harder material....

Gage software for the real world: living in a fantasy world overshadows potential gage management problems.(QUALITY SOFTWARE & ANALYSIS)(Ephemeron Manufacturing)
September 1, 2005... Imagine a medium-sized company, Ephemeron Manufacturing, with three plants dispersed throughout North America. In renewing its ISO certification, the company has become increasingly aware of the importance of not only maintaining its...

Quality leadership 100: Quality's survey reveals that these companies know quality makes a difference.(QUALITY MANAGEMENT)
September 1, 2005... Automotive, medical and pharmaceutical, dentistry and agricultural equipment. Advics Manufacturing Ohio Inc., Abbott Laboratories, A-dec, Agco Jackson Operations and ArvinMeritor. Those industries and those companies take the top five places in...

Documentation saves time and money.(CASE STUDIES)
September 1, 2005... Anchor Manufacturing Group Inc., (Cleveland), a producer of metal stampings and assemblies, aims to produce on-time, quality parts to specifications at the best price. The company's facility near Cleveland Hopkins Airport, which includes...

Supplier benefits from remanufactured CMMs.(CASE STUDIES)(coordinate measuring machines )
September 1, 2005... Duggan Manufacturing (Shelby Township, MI) is a sheet metal stamping prototype company celebrating its fifth anniversary this year. The company is a parts supplier to OEMs. Many of their parts are related to window system components, safety...

Articulating arms.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... MicroScribe MX portable measurement systems for reverse engineering, measurement and inspection are a family of articulated arms. The series achieves twice the accuracy of the company's G2 model to meet the more exacting requirements of the...

Model-based inspection software.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... Verisurf V5 r3.1 software for the Catia V5 platform provides realtime, model-based inspection and computer-aided manufacturing. Operators of laser trackers, CMMs and portable articulating arms can work with embedded functional tolerancing and...

Machine vision camera.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... The IPX-4M15-L high-speed progressive scan camera is a member of the Lynx line of high-speed cameras. It has up to 2 megapixel resolution at 315 frames per second. This machine vision camera incorporates the Lynx 32-bit RISC processor to...

Gaging sensor.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... The LaserGauge HS410C high-resolution gaging sensor inspects score or coining quality on easy-open can lids. A color graphical screen displays the crosssectional scan of the score for the operator. Score depth, width, angle and radius are...

Operator control solution.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... The Human Interface Panel (HIP), an operator control solution for the company's entire line of critical dimension measurement systems provides full machine-status display as well as operator control functionality. The panel can be mounted to a...

Checkweighers.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... Entry-level checkweighers have simplified functionality and provide an economical solution for manufacturers that do not require additional features. While only allowing basic functionality, the 5297 Controllers for these checkweighers exclude...

Visual inspection software.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... An upgraded version of Inspect visual inspection software has an easy-to-use graphical interface for visual defect identification and repair in factory-floor assembly operations. Technical features include an XML Comm Server interface, which...

Conversion module.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... The second generation USB DigiDirect is hardware/software for converting existing PCs into a real-time SPC gaging system for digital gages. The module provides four direct interface ports for Mitutoyo and other brand hand gages, dial indicators...

CNC CMM.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... The Legex 322 CNC coordinate measuring machine is a one-piece configuration, designed for quick setup and operation, even where space is at a premium. The machine measures and inspects components sized to 300 by 200 by 200 millimeters, with a...

Laser-line filters.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... Laser-line filters are fabricated using a "hard" ion-beam sputter technology and achieve greater than 90% transmission at the design laser wavelength. The filters are for laser-based fluorescence instrumentation, Raman spectroscopy, and...

Calibration software.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... GAGEpack EZ is a gage calibration software program that includes a maintenance calendar for keeping up with scheduled maintenance activities at a glance, in addition to calibration and R&R events. The list can be color-coded to show due dates,...

Plug gages.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... Class Z plug gages are the same price as the Class ZZ gage pin. The Z tolerance gage has higher accuracy than the Class ZZ and is available in combinations ranging from 0.011 inch to 1.0 inch and 0.21 millimeter to 25.41 millimeters. All gages...

CMM training module.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... CMM Operation and Calibration computer-based training modules are available. The training includes terminology, concepts, graphics, formulas, real-world examples and practice questions from experts throughout the calibration industry. A...

CMM.(QUALITY PRODUCTS)
September 1, 2005... The Phoenix DCC shop hardened coordinate measuring machine for small- and medium-sized parts has a capacity of 12 by 12 by 10 inches. The machine has fully covered ways, bearing and scales for shop protection. Scales are metal on steel...