Mitutoyo ‘Seal’ a deal for four CMMs

Headquartered in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, AESSEAL is the world’s 4th largest supplier of mechanical seals. The business operates from 235 locations in 104 countries and continues to achieve growth by the continuous development and introduction of innovative products that provide positive customer benefits.

AESSEAL holds the world's most comprehensive standard inventory portfolio of mechanical seals, bearing protectors, seal support systems and packing. The company’s range of seals, seal support systems and bearing protectors are designed to improve pump reliability and to reduce maintenance costs.

Quality permeates every aspect of AESSEAL’s operations, from the introduction of new products to the final inspection of finished components. For example, the company uses state-of-the-art computational facilities and numerical tools to design and optimise seal performance prior to manufacture. In addition, to ensure the delivery of sustained reliable performance, the company tests its products to their limits and its test rigs can be programmed to validate seal designs against pre-determined criteria. AESSEAL also use a wide range of Mitutoyo Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs) to undertake the majority of its product inspection tasks.

Recently, the construction of AESSEAL’s new ‘Factory for the Future’ in Rotherham was completed. The ambitious project, which included the refurbishment and “greening” of the existing plant, in addition to the construction of a state-of-the-art, 60,000 sq. ft extension, has added an additional 50% capacity to the site’s total sq. footage, bringing the company’s total investment in Rotherham to more than £61 million.

The extension has provided a new manufacturing facility capable of supporting state-of-the-art robotic machines and a future-proof, open-plan production area that will allow for internal reconfigurations as the business develops.

Due to the expansion of the Rotherham manufacturing facility and the rise in production volumes, AESSEAL recently needed to obtain four additional Coordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs) to enable its inspection operation to keep pace with increased levels of production.

AESSEAL Branch Manager Steve Williams explained “At AESSEAL quality is non-negotiable and is embedded within our manufacturing operations, ensuring the production of world-class products. Following the completion of our large extension, a further four Mitutoyo CMMs were recently purchased.

“As a user of Mitutoyo CMMs for over two decades we are aware of the quality of the company’s products and the service provided by Mitutoyo UK. Therefore, we compared our new CMM requirements with Mitutoyo’s comprehensive range of machines. Eventually we decided to purchase four CMMs from the company’s advanced CRYSTA-Apex V Series for use in our new extension.

“We bought a large capacity CRYSTA-Apex V122010 machine for use on our bigger components and three smaller CRYSTA-Apex V 574 variant machines. Two of our V 574 CMMs are for use within our automated DMG production cells. Whilst one of the V574 machines is for production support, and also for use in supporting the programming of the automated cells. Mitutoyo’s MiCat planner was also supplied with the CMMs to aid in the rapid generation of CMM inspection programmes.

“Following trouble free installation and product training our four new Mitutoyo CMMs are providing excellent service and are now delivering rapid feed-back to our production units.”

The recently launched CRYSTA-Apex series was developed to support the quality evaluation of volumetric parts. The high performance, cost effective CMM range was designed and constructed according to Mitutoyo‘s extensive experience in CNC CMM technology. The range is ready to accept touch trigger probes, scanning probes, optical probes and laser scanner probes.

The comprehensive series makes use of a proven, lightweight bridge-type construction with high rigidity air-bearings on every axis, helping to deliver excellent levels of accuracy in addition to high speed and high acceleration rates. ABS linear scales provide high environmental resistance whilst saving time at start-up as, unlike some other less advanced machines, homing is not necessary. The range’s UC 480 controller supports Multi-sensor and SMS (Smart Measuring System) functionality, Although CRYSTA-Apex V Series machines are suitable for use withing temperature controlled environment, thanks to their robust construction and features such as advanced, real-time thermal compensation systems, the range is also able to provide high levels of precision when installed close to the point of production, for example, within machine tool cells.

The CRYSTA-Apex V122010 variant, as purchased by AESSEALS provides a generous x,y,z, capacity of 1200x2000x1000 mm. Therefore, in addition to being able to accommodate AESSEAL’s large components, thanks to the advanced CNC capabilities of the machine, users are able to load large batches of smaller parts onto the machine’s bed and to perform fully automated mass inspection routines.

Sharing the same advanced attributes as the CRYSTA-Apex V122010 machine, albeit with a smaller x, y, z capacity of 500 x 700 x 400 mm, the V 574 variant represents the perfect CMM for inspecting AESEEAL’s smaller parts.

The use of MiCAT Planner enables the development of AESSEAL’s CMM measurement programs to be made both easier and faster. The popular Mitutoyo product allows more flexible measurements by complying with customisable measuring rules that can be set as needed. Depending on the feature type, size and other criteria, the operator is able to set the number of measuring points and their distribution, in addition to setting the speed for touch-trigger or scanning probes. Whilst several sets of rules may be applied simultaneously according to manufacturing or customer requirements.