A FIXTURE FOR INSPECTING HIGHLY PRECISE MEDICAL PARTS

A measuring equipment manufacturer needed a way to hold some highly precise parts for inspection for one of their medical customers. Here is the solution devised by Advanced Machine & Engineering.

Mycrona of North America, Inc. (Elgin, IL), a measurement equipment manufacturer, needed a way to hold some highly precise parts for inspection for one of their medical customers. The equipment manufacturer was applying their new optical measuring technique, which uses sensitive and fragile glass probes, to check the machining accuracy of the parts. They needed fixtures that provided accurate locating, secure holding and high repeatability that would ensure the most accurate measurement results while preventing damage to the measuring probe. They came to Advanced Machine & Engineering (AME; Rockford, IL) for help.

Repeatability between multiple fixtures used on the same measuring machine was important to eliminate the need to probe each fixture for position prior to using it. This is critical, because the measuring equipment is used to probe and measure holes as small as .022 in and up to a few inches in depth.

The medical customer that was buying the measurement machine from Mycrona had originally specified using bolt-on chucking components to locate and secure the fixtures to the measuring machine indexer. This would introduce positioning errors, provide less secure holding and reduce control of the repeatability of the fixture’s position.

AME offered more precise solution that resulted in a nearly one-piece fixture by integrating the company’s high precision HSK toolholding parts into the design for securing the fixture to the measuring machine. Combined with precision machining capability, this technique allowed the new fixtures to maintain location while holding repeatability to within 0.0002 in TIR (total indicator reading).

Advanced Machine & Engineering Co., 2500 Latham Street, Rockford, IL 61103, 815-316-5277, Fax: 815-962-6483, [email protected], www.ame.com.