Had similar problems with (video) CMMs in the past. A nice indicator and a good excuse ;) is a cup of black coffee. The reflections of the room light at the black surface make a quite sensitive indicator to seismic problems.
We had a similiar seismic problem with our visual grinders at our plant in York, PA. It turns out there was a surprisingly well-kept secret that much of the city was tunneled-under by a limestone rock quarry 400 feet down. The local toolmakers all knew about it from the ruined work pieces whenever the blasting below shook the ground like a semi-trailer truck or train going-by at a critical finish grind, but there was no highway or train track close enough to explain it.
I always thought it was strange that such a major operation was virtually unknown by most of the general public.
It is always interesting to see how things that are assumed to not have any influence do have an influence. The CMM does wind up being a very sensitive device, and probably should contain an internal accelerometer to warn a user about machine vibration.
I can't tell you how many times the Sherlock Ohms cases involve some oddbird activities that affect a nearby process. Let us know your stories about weird performance oddities that took some investigation to solve. Send your Sherlock cases to Rob.spiegel@UBM.com.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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