Gnosjö Automatsvarvning of Sweden produces turned parts for industries including automotive,and measurement and verification are a critical part of production. For this,the company has had a long collaboration with Mitutoyo.
“We work with bars from 4 millimetres up to 80mm, and in large and small batches, from 50 individual parts to several million of the same component,” says CEO Linda Fransson. “We have challenged Mitutoyo several times over the years and they have always given us what we need,” she says.
Gnosjö Automatsvarvning has around 60 employees and has worked hard to automate the verification process as much as possible. This means that everyone should be able to use the equipment, which places high demands on automation, structure, and order.
“Each product has its own programme, created in Mitutoyo’s software.”
The operator – who knows both the machine and the part best – carries out the verification of each individual component, and this places high demands on both user-friendliness and durability of equipment.
“Our equipment from Mitutoyo consists of everything from callipers and micrometres to advanced coordinate measuring machines, contour gauges and surface roughness metres.”
All the equipment we need for measurement and verification comes exclusively from Mitutoyo. We have tried other suppliers in some areas but have not found anyone who can provide the quality we need.
The operator does the verification of each individual component themselves, and this places high demands on both user-friendliness and equipment that lasts over time
The machinery includes, among others, RA-2200 CNC Extreme, RA-2200AS, LSM, CV-3100H4, RA-2100AS, PJ-H30, SV-3100S4, MeasurLink, U-WAVE and two unique LEGEX measuring machines that can handle tolerances that few others in the world can handle.
“We can measure accuracy down to 0.45 μm, which is an accuracy that not many others can handle or even need, but for us it is crucial to be able to deliver our parts. For us, our LEGEX-machines are so crucial that we have chosen to invest in two identical ones as a back up solution so that we do not have to stop production if something happens to one of the machines,” commented CEO Linda Fransson.
A well-functioning statistics programme is a necessity for Gnosjö Automatsvarvning. It is used to monitor variations in tool wear but also to control the production process.
“The system stores data from our measurements, so that we can both monitor in real time and also use it later for analysis. With a unique measurement programme for each part, we systematise how we measure so that the operators cannot decide how the parts should be verified.”
The company is gradually moving away from the old software in favour of Measurlink, both from Mitutoyo. U-WAVE facilitates measurement close to the machine – even the machine as it is a wireless system for the measuring tools.
“I only see opportunities for our future cooperation. We will need new, faster technology with AI technology as part of the decision-making basis,” said Linda Fransson.
Learn more https://mitutoyo.eu/uk
https://designsolutionsmag.co.uk/category/test-measurement/
