Established in 1972, Nupress Tools is an advanced manufacturer of precision machined components and assemblies based in Cardiff, a suburb of Newcastle, on the New South Wales coast.
Competing in an increasingly competitive international marketplace, Nupress focuses on working smarter not harder. Its innovative manufacturing approach positions it well for the manufacture of unique, complex parts, while also being able to excel in high-quantity batch manufacturing.
This commitment to innovation and quality led to Nupress’ Managing Director Murray Claire and its CEO Craig McWilliam embarking on an analysis of suitable co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) technologies to complement and enhance their other leading edge technologies.
Among other parameters, the key criteria established by Claire and McWilliam were threefold :
- The system should enhance the company’s process control capabilities and had to include continuous analogue scanning.
- The selected unit should be suitable for use in both a production and a quality assurance role.
- To get the best out of any system that Nupress chose, extensive ongoing local support would be critical.
After evaluating three potential suppliers, Nupress decided on a Hexagon Global Classic SR 09.12.08 CMM with PC-DMIS software and analogue scanning. The Global Classic is an affordable all-purpose CMM for the dimensional inspection of a variety of components. It can be equipped with touch-trigger probes or optional scanning probes. Global Classic CMMs are used in a number of industries for first and final part inspection, fixture qualification and more.
In late 2016 Hi-Tech Metrology installed and calibrated the machine, and then provided the operator training necessary to ensure that Nupress gained maximum benefit from their investment. Now, a short two years since it was installed, Claire is happy to report some of the tangible benefits achieved by Nupress as a result of the new CMM.
“A lot of customer drawings have dimensions to intersection points in space or tight tolerance diameters at a gauge plane dimension along a taper,” he explains. “In the past we would manufacture gauges and checking jigs that would take not only manufacturing resources but also engineering resources with considerable cost associated. Now we can eliminate that part of the cost equation.
As well as these gains, the new CMM has meant that Nupress can utilise its staff in more productive ways.
“There has not been any direct labour savings; I mean we have not reduced the workforce at all,” says Claire. “However, we have been able to use the labour we have more efficiently for a large percentage of the time.”
Claire went on to emphasise the ongoing benefits of sourcing the technology from Hi-Tech Metrology: “Local support. The equipment itself is only one part of the total value proposition. It is when the machine is not running or when we need to have more people trained that puts the Hi-Tech solution to the top of the list. The local support and rapid responses to questions made the whole transition very smooth.”