Gibbs Gears produce high-precision gears, shafts, and machined components for the UK, and increasingly, for worldwide markets.
A family-owned business for over 60 years, the company’s in-house expertise and impressive plant list allows it to serve customers involved in some of the world’s most demanding sectors, including the aerospace, motorsport, medical, marine, and to an ever-increasing extent, the electric vehicle industry.
Having established an excellent reputation for the quality of its output, Gibbs Gears continues to apply the most rigorous quality control procedures and is approved to AS9100 Rev C, BS EN ISO 9001:2008 and AS 9100D/ISO 9001:2015.
To ensure the performance of its inspection technology, the Stoke Mandeville, Buckinghamshire-based company, regularly updates its equipment in this area. The latest additions to Gibbs Gears’ advanced quality control aids are two newly installed Zeiss CNC CMMs.
Gibbs Gears has been an enthusiastic user of a Zeiss DuraMax CMM for many years, although, given the costs involved and the potential technical gains that could have been made with other metrology manufacturers, in addition to considering the offerings from Zeiss, CMMs from alternative suppliers were considered.
However, having explored the other available options, Gibbs consequently placed an order for a high-precision Zeiss Contura CNC CMM for use within its temperature-controlled quality department, and a latest generation Zeiss DuraMax CNC CMM was purchased for use on the company’s shopfloor. Each of the CMMs were specified with the addition of high-accuracy rotary tables to provide fourth-axis capabilities and the ability to undertake complex, high-precision gear inspection routines.
Gibbs Gears’ chief inspector, Rob Jackson explains: “Having enjoyed trouble-free operation from a DuraMax CMM and excellent service from Zeiss UK for the past eight years we have a natural bias towards the brand.
“Although, given the potential major outlay and the importance of accurate CMM inspection to our quality function, as we do when contemplating all capital expenditure, we looked at the alternative options. Following our research, it became obvious that a Zeiss Contura CMM and the latest DuraMax CMM, matched, and in some areas exceeded, our demanding CMM specification requirements, and were the best available options.”
The Contura CMM is now helping to ensure the rapid completion of high-precision, complex inspection routines in Gibbs’ busy inspection department. In addition to being the ideal, precise CMM for demanding inspection requirements, the future-proofed Contura is also Industry 4.0 ready.
Thanks to the use of a common interface, Gibbs’ inspectors are able to switch between different sensor technologies, such as optical or tactile probes, in just a few simple steps while the CMM’s rotary table enables challenging 4-axis gear measuring routines to be performed.
The DuraMax at Gibbs Gears is equipped with the Vast XXT scanning sensor, therefore, in addition to undertaking all customary inspection routines, it can also be used to capture contours and freeform surfaces. The CMM is able to replace a wide range of commonly used gauges and eliminate the costs associated with the upkeep and regular calibration of measuring equipment. The DuraMax also reduces time lost in finding gauges that can be located throughout the shopfloor.
Occupying a minimum amount of valuable floor space and offering convenient four-sided component loading, the DuraMax is ideal for delivering precision measurements in less than ideal environments. The robust machine employs passive vibration damping and is able to maintain its impressive accuracy specification in temperatures up to 30°C. The ‘plug and play’ machine does not require the provision of compressed air, whilst its shopfloor proof attributes are further enhanced by its guideways being completely covered.
Mr Jackson concludes: “The Contura’s ability to perform rapid, automated CNC measuring routines has significantly reduced our inspection times. In addition to the advantages gained in the inspection department, our new DuraMax is now fully integrated into our production schedules and allows high-precision, in-process measuring routines to be performed. Our quality personnel write all of the required inspection programs offline and load them onto the DuraMax, when required. Production staff simply recall the relevant program and perform fully automated CNC measuring procedures on their components.
“Although we have purchased specialised Zeiss CAD and gear related software with the new CMMs, it is a major advantage that both machines use Zeiss Calypso software. Our personnel find Calypso very easy to use as it is based on visual metrology and doesn’t need in-depth programming or complicated code input. As part features from drawings or CAD models are stored as icons, staff are able to simply select the relevant icon and a measurement plan is completed.
“The nature of the customers we supply, such as the electric vehicle industry, means that in addition to manufacturing and inspecting to ever increasing precision standards, we are frequently faced with extremely short lead-times. The impressive speed and accuracy of the new CMMs has enabled us to meet the challenges of increased precision and to significantly reduce inspection times.”
Zeiss UK
www.zeiss.co.uk
Gibbs Gears
www.gibbsgears.com
