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Posted by Joe Lendway, Quality Assurance Manager

As manufactured devices become smaller, it’s more and more challenging to produce their complex components. Micro and micro-miniature parts require producing micro and micro-miniature features. Increasingly smaller parts require increasingly tighter tolerances.

But highly engineered production is only one phase of the micro-stamping solution. Quality management also demands innovation and a leading-edge philosophy.

Micro and micro-miniature parts are deal for a precision stamping process that inserts quality and conformance closer to the point of manufacture. Rather than “inspecting it in” downstream. Particularly because any amount of handling, when it comes to a delicate micro part, have the potential to alter a part dimensionally. That’s why non-contact measurement – as provided by vision measurement systems – is mandatory for quality assurance in micro stamping.

To meet the need for non-contact inspection and measurement of dies we use a multi-sensor measuring system that brings together high-resolution cameras, touch-trigger probes and white-light scanning sensor metrology. White-light sensing to inspect parts – with difficult-to-measure profiles, features and surfaces – avoids having to section (cut away) parts in order to measure intricate features. White-light scanning sensors can also be used as a tracing tool to trace contours on form punches and die cavities, as well as the parts themselves. This provides better insight into tooling component accuracy during the tool-build phase of a project.

Another central strategy for driving quality improvement is establishing ownership of the quality function as near as possible to the production process. For example, press operators (who can observe and respond in real time) are trained to operate the multi-sensor optical measuring systems. Operators are empowered to make decisions on product quality at earliest possible stages of production, which means they feel greater ownership of an integral piece of the overall quality process. They are significantly more aligned with – and in a position to contribute to – what’s critical, how to measure it, and how to control those elements.

The traditional manufacturing mindset was to buy new quality technology that was isolated – away from the process it must measure – in a Quality lab. Today an operator conducts his own measurement on the production floor. And then directly applies the knowledge to make adjustments that directly impact and improve the process outcome. Because all press floor operators and tool makers automatically participate in the implementation of new quality strategies, there is increased engagement and willingness to take ownership of the process and proactively offer ideas to solve issues and improve the final result.

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