Quality investment

Featuring a comprehensive range of advanced Man Machine Interfaces (MMI) solutions including, membrane switches, piezo switches, touchscreens and Industrial Graphics (IG), the Danielson company is one of the largest technical manufacturers in its field.

Danielson offers customer specific solutions and works closely with its clients, from a project's design stage, through to the production and delivery of a wide range of high quality MMI and IG solutions. The universally applicable nature of the company's products means that Danielson's international customer base is derived from a diverse cross section of sectors including medical/laboratory, aerospace, control/automation, automotive, military, and industrial applications.

In today's highly automated world, custom membrane switches, piezo switches and touchscreens are the critical interface between a user and a multitude of devices, machines and technical equipment. Man Machine Interfaces often define the operator's user experience, and consequently they are critical to the perceived value of the products they interface with.

In order to maintain the high quality of its output, Danielson makes regular investments in inspection equipment. A case in point was the company's recent need search for a highly accurate, non contact, automated dimensional measuring machine, that was able to measure in the micron scale.

After evaluating all available options, Doug Sellers, the quality manager at Danielson's Aylesbury manufacturing plant, contacted renowned UK metrology company, Baty International – a leading manufacturers of 2D optical profile projectors and full 3D camera based coordinate measuring systems.

Mr Sellers reports: “We had product demonstrations from a number of vision measuring system providers, but although each offered excellent products, none were able to adhere fully to our list of criteria. Although some were able to demonstrate machines that could provide the accuracy and repeatability required, they did not have the capacity to accommodate some of our larger products.

“It quickly became apparent during the Baty International demonstration, that their Venture Plus machine ticked all of our boxes. Now installed in our environmentally controlled inspection department, our new vision measuring system has given us the levels of measuring accuracy and repeatability required across our full range of products.”

He adds: “As the unit uses very instinctive software, our operators had a very short training period and quickly became proficient in the vision system's use. So successful has our Venture Plus experience been, we have also purchased an identical machine for use in our manufacturing plant based in the Netherlands.” A product of decades of experience within the field of profile measuring and optical coordinate measuring design and manufacturing, Baty International's Venture Plus range includes systems that cover two standard measuring ranges, with X, Y, Z, capacities of 640mm x 640mm x 250mm and 640mm x 940mm x 250mm.

Based on a robust mechanical design, the system comprises a host of advanced features, including an integrated mount, suitable for the fitting of a standard Renishaw TP20 touch probe and Baty's new, fully programmable white LED surface lighting system.

An automatic video edge detection facility with circle, arc, line, point tools and free form scanning tool enables the capture of thousands of data points in seconds. The Venture uses a high resolution USB2 CCD camera that provides a high definition colour image, a digital zoom and sharp image capture capability for reporting purposes. A premium 6.5:1 CNC zoom lens allows the automatic selection of the optimum magnification for each featured part, whilst Z-axis measurement is performed in auto focus mode.

The Venture's software enables a best fit comparison to DXF files, giving an instantaneous pass/fail for complex shapes. A bi-product of a Venture measuring routine is that a fully dimensioned drawing of the measured part is produced automatically. SPC analysis, including graphic control charts, is also included within the Venture's software package.

Baty International
www.baty.co.uk