b'Newtown Bearings Improves Measurement CapabilitiesA constant demand for the reverse engineering of products has led to the acquisition of a Hexagon 6-axis measurement arm to improve speed and accuracy of work.A little-known aspect of Newtowns The 1.2m unit will be installed at the QCB Thermoplastic range tobusiness is the supply of small to companys Stafford Park facility but is include blue coloured housingsmedium assemblies of parts which are portable and could be used on-site if to complement the green andoften, but not always, built around a necessary. Another great feature is that white already offered.bearing. These assemblies can include all Hexagon arms use the same software, Contact here: shafts, housings, spacers, seals, so larger units could be hired for on-site +44 1952 222400and gearboxes. work and no additional training would sales@newtownbearings.co.uk In many cases the client has limited be required. www.newtownbearings.co.ukinformation on file which can make All in all, it is an exciting time at Newtownthe development of drawings quite as the company continues to improvechallenging, and Newtowns technical its quality control systems and releaseteam often has to reverse engineer new product ranges such as the QCBthese items to produce the necessary Extreme Series of shaker screen bearingsproduction drawings. and the QCB double row slewing drives.To date, measurements have been made As well as this, they are expanding theusing a variety of calibrated verniers,depth gauges and other tools whichthen allow for the development of 2DCAD and 3D models. But to speed up theflow of work and improve the accuracyof measurements, the company haspurchased a new 6-axis measurementarm which will allow accurate dimensionsto be quickly transferred into theCAD system. Not only will this equipment assist with the capture and digitisation of the measurements of parts and assemblies received for quotation to create CAD models, but it will afford us a greater degree of quality control on incoming parts. Lester Milton, Group Technical Manager.Another use for the arm will be theaccurate measurement of slewing rings Hexagon 6-axis measurement armand ring gears often sent in by tradeclients and for which the company isalready well known. Most slewing ringsare fairly easy to measure and haveregular bolt patterns or bolt spacing, butevery now and then we see an OEM partthat has an extremely variable bolt patternand these can be a nightmare to measurewith traditional methods, says Lester.Using the new arm will eliminate anypossible errors.36'