KEYENCE
KEYENCE WIDE-AREA CMM HELPS MACHINE SHOP DIVERSIFY INTO AEROSPACE MARKET Coastal Machine & Supply, an experienced US-based manufacturer of precision, custommachined parts for the oil and gas industry, has used its investment in a Keyence WM series wide-area CMM (coordinate measuring machine) to help it diversify into the aerospace market. In particular, the CMM simplifies the extensive GD&T (Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing) requirements associated with the machining of aerospace components.
L
ocated in Carencro, Louisiana, the 37,200 ft2 (3,456 m2) facility of Coastal Machine is home to a wide selection of the latest CNC machining centers and lathes. Formed in 2004, the 50-employee company prides itself on the quality of its machined parts, where accuracy and precision are key to business success. The need to diversify “While we’ve always served the oil and gas industry, over past two years we’ve consciously been diversifying into other markets, including aerospace and defense, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic and how it affected the oil and gas sector,” explains Operations Manager Kody Guidry.
A traditional part of Coastal Machine’s business is the production of long downhole oil and gas parts, some of which can be up to 240 inch (6 m) long. “Historically, we measured the overall length of these components using a tape measure or by stacking up scales,” explains Guidry. “However, for one contract we sent some parts to a premium threading shop and they were using a Keyence WM series wide-area CMM, which immediately sparked our interest.” Coastal Machine duly contacted Keyence for a demonstration at the company’s Carencro headquarters. “It was an easy decision to invest as we knew immediately that we could easily check our long parts to tight tolerances far more easily than with hand tools,” says Guidry. “Today, we use a macro in the WM for checking overall length, which takes the operator through the measurement process in a simple and user-friendly way.” Ideal for large parts With its large 10 m (32.8 ft) measuring range, the Keyence WM series widearea CMM is a far better option for large parts than a CMM arm, bridge CMM, laser tracker or hand tools, all of which suffer from restricted measurement area, the requirement for highly trained operators and difficulty in allowing single-person inspection. Maintenance costs can also be high. The shop-floor-ready, portable WM series performs precision measurement via its triple-camera tracking system that captures near-infrared light emitted by seven probe markers. As a result, users benefit from a high-accuracy of
05 - Electronics Journal - JULY 2022
12
