Amid growing demand from clients in defence and aerospace, South Australian precision engineering company Toolcraft Australia recently invested in a new COORD3 co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM), supplied by Met Optix.
Founded in 1979, Toolcraft is a leading manufacturing and technology development company based in Holden Hill. The 100% Australian-owned company has supplied precision components and assemblies to the defence, aviation, space, hypersonics, electronics, medical and renewable energy industries for more than 40 years. As a top tier aerospace company, Toolcraft partners with world-leading businesses to design, engineer and manufacture advanced products, systems, and technologies.
Toolcraft is an approved supplier for DST Group and many defence Prime contractors, including BAE Systems, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Thales and Rheinmetall. With a quality management system accredited to AS9100D + ISO9001 and capabilities extending from bespoke one-off parts to mass production of full-component assemblies, Toolcraft is equipped for any challenge. The company recently established Toolcraft Defence Technologies Pty Ltd to build internal R&D capability for advanced mechanical systems, focusing on energy, hypersonics and laser integration technologies.
In 2020, Toolcraft decided to invest in a new five-axis CMM, not only to enhance its metrology capability, but to increase its capacity and keep up with defence sector growth. The company concluded that the COORD3 brand of CMM represented the best value, quality machine on the market, opting for the extremely popular COORD3 ARES bridge CMM, 16.09.07 size, with a Renishaw controller, PH20/TP20 motorised indexing head and touch probe, along with TouchDMIS CAD CMM software.
According to Greg Stevens, General Manager – Innovation & Aerospace at Toolcraft, the new COORD3 CMM has delivered increased capacity and production output through the quality assurance facility. With the enhanced capabilities it delivered, the new machine was instrumental in helping Toolcraft secure a lucrative multi-year defence contract.
Met Optix installed and commissioned the new COORD 3 CMM at Toolcraft with expert support from installation specialist Sachin Kumar, from COORD3’s service centre in New Delhi, India. The Met Optix team were also assisted by its local sales and support partner in Adelaide, AISA SA, whose owner Johan Grove worked tirelessly to ensure the installation was successful. Full training in TouchDMIS, as well as on-going on-site and remote software support, were also provided.
“Met Optix did an excellent job managing the CMM installation,” Stevens commented. “It was delivered on time and without issues and their after-sales support has been second to none.”
In addition to the new CMM , Met Optix also upgraded the software on Toolcraft’s two older CMMs so that a common software platform, TouchDMIS, could be operated across all three of the company’s machines. A retrofit program was instigated which involved the EasyCMM product sold by Met Optix. EasyCMM is a disruptive communication software that allows any CMM client software to connect and drive all leading CMM brands.
Looking to the future, further acquisitions could be in the pipeline for Toolcraft, says Stevens: “Should defence orders continue to grow, Toolcraft would most certainly consider the procurement of a second COORD3 CMM.”