The inspection of large components

Founded in 1993, China's Jin Tong Ling Technology Group Co. Ltd. is a service-oriented company that integrates research and development and manufacturing of technology-intensive modern high-end equipment.

The company offers compressors, blowers, steam turbines and various specifications of energy-saving fluid machinery as its main products. These are widely used in iron and steel smelting, thermal power generation, petrochemical, shipbuilding, nuclear power and other fields. With the rapid growth of China's market economy, these products are increasingly in demand in the international market in recent years.

With the constant technical progress, Jin Tong Ling has also continued to advance the quality management of its products. Before that, there were some challenges to overcome. For example, some large workpieces were measured using traditional or manual methods, which were not very efficient and sometimes resulted in inaccurate measurement parameters. In addition, some complex surface dimensions and shapes could not be detected with traditional measurement methods, which inevitably affected the quality of the products.

Thus, the company was looking for a durable, efficient and accurate measuring solution for optimal inspection, especially of large components. To take advantage of this opportunity, WENZEL offered a large LH 2015 coordinate measuring machine from the LH Gantry series in combination with Renishaw's REVO 5-axis measuring head. This allowed the scanning speed of the coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to be increased enormously.

The LH Gantry 2015 was specially designed for the inspection of large-volume and heavy workpieces. The compact design with active pneumatic vibration damping and automatic temperature compensation allows installation without a special foundation. The raised guides in the Y-axis also ensure maximum stability, even with dynamic movements. The LH gantry is thus ideally suited for Jin Tong Ling's applications that require both speed and maximum precision.

Wu Yafei, engineer at Jin Tong Ling, describes his experience with the new WENZEL CMM as thoroughly positive: "Our company previously did not have such large CNC measuring machines available, which made it impossible to measure large components in high volumes. However, the introduction of the LH 2015 made it possible to significantly increase the measurement throughput and thus supplements a weak point of the previous quality inspection."

Unlike conventional measuring methods, the LH Gantry 2015 with REVO is well equipped for high-performance 5-axis measurement. With this metrology , the probe can achieve measurement along a continuous path around the complex workpiece, allowing the probe assembly to be changed or the measuring seat to be positioned without leaving the measuring surface. Scanning through the five-axis synchronous motion speeds up data acquisition and allows exceptional measurement flexibility. For example, the inner bore can be measured via a switch point, circular scanning or helical scanning. For surface and edge measurements, the measuring points can be quickly acquired by "head-touch" scanning, which improves accuracy and repeatability.

Meanwhile, the stepless positioning function ensures the measurement of the optimal features, minimises the number of probe changes and greatly improves the measurement time. This metrology can not only save costs for the user, but also greatly improve measurement efficiency and achieve accurate measurement results.

"With this 5-axis measuring system, we can measure our components even more accurately and efficiently. In addition, the system has been in operation for two years and has a low failure rate and high accuracy in that time."