A company that grows to meet challenges

Starting with automatic edge sensors and automation software on profile projectors, progressing into automatic video measuring systems, and ultimately today’s advanced 3D multisensor systems, OGP technology and know-how has enabled manufacturers in many industries improve their measurement capability, which in-turn has helped to reduce scrap and re-work, and improve quality.

As Asia became the world’s hub for micro-electronics manufacturing, non-contact and multisensor measurement, OGP has consistently been a leading innovator for making very small parts with tight tolerances in the region.

INTERNATIONAL METALWORKING NEWS FOR ASIA (IMNA) spoke to Mr Stephen Flynn, President. He discussed OGP’s product offerings, and software applications in today’s manufacturing, including business in Asia.

IMNA: Can you briefly describe OGP product offerings in Asia?

Flynn: OGP offers a full line of automatic optical and multisensor 3D coordinate measurement systems, capable of measuring dimensions ranging from a few microns to over 2-metres.  

IMNA: What characteristic or business model differentiates OGP from its competitors? How does this factor in the company's success?

Flynn: Many things differentiate OGP from other metrology suppliers. OGP has been an independent producer of optical measurement systems in continuous operation for over 70-years. Through that time, we have developed a substantial base of experience and know-how that enables us to innovate and bring new technologies to market more quickly and more successfully than others. Several of our big name competitors are also very old companies, but they have not been in the measurement business anywhere near as long as OGP. Another important factor is our longevity in serving the Asian market. Optical Gaging (S) has been established as a corporation in Singapore for over 20-years now, and prior to that we served the South East Asia market with local factory trained representatives. We respect our customer’s preference to work with a local partner. 

IMNA: How would you differentiate OGP products, such as SmartScope, or FlexPoint, with other suppliers in terms of technical uniqueness?

Flynn: There are many unique technologies built-in to OGP products. First and foremost are the carefully designed optical systems deployed on SmartScope systems. The SmartScope Flash, ZIP and Vantage families each offer a unique optical arrangement with magnification, resolution, lighting and camera designed for a range of measurement situations. Optical measuring systems measure the image of a part, rather than the part itself, so the imaging optics must be the best. The SmartScope family offers several optical systems, ach optimised for a range of applications. Our FlexPoint systems offer a highly flexible and economical alternative to hard gauging / air gauging set-ups. The programmable FlexPoint can be easily configured to measure entire families of parts with a variety of unique probe arrangements. One FlexPoint system can replace a large inventory of hard-gauges and the costs that go with them.

IMNA: QVI Zone3 CAD Based Metrology software just launched in SEA last October, what is the best feature(s) of this software and its uniqueness?

Flynn: ZONE3 offers the user the simplest and most convenient workflow of any 3D metrology package. The key is what we call Visual Validation – for virtually every operation, a live animated model updates in real time to show the relationship of the machine, fixture tooling and part, to the active sensors and alignment. You can see the measurement take place in animation before or during the actual measurement so you know exactly what’s going to happen next. By having a live animation in front you, the learning time goes down from weeks to hours. ZONE3 is a 7^th generation software product from OGP.  It reflects more than 35 years of experience with multisensor systems. 

IMNA: How do you see the importance of software applications in today’s manufacturing?

Flynn: The importance of software applications continues to increase as all manufacturers drive to increase productivity and efficiency. The model we are building today is native interoperability of design, manufacturing and quality inspection data in a common data stream to reduce time to market for new product designs. 

IMNA: What challenges manufacturers faced in which OGP’s measuring systems helped for them overcome the issues?

Flynn: OGP systems have enabled manufacturers to overcome a great many challenges in both quality assurance and process control. At the most basic level, OGP systems are frequently used for Go / No-Go type inspection of critical dimensions. For complex assemblies, knowing that each component part in in spec for all dimensions and tolerances before assembly saves considerable time and trouble. At the more advanced level, using metrology data to monitor on-going manufacturing processes, to spot variations before a process goes out of control limits, and to use dimensional data to adjust and control production processes – this is the real value-added of automated measurement systems.

IMNA: Can you share with us on the new technologies launched at IMTS?

Flynn:  We made several new product introductions at IMTS.   One of these was our new TeleStar® Probe – an interferometric laser with very high accuracy that can be side-mounted on our popular SmartScope ZIP Advance multisensor systems. The TeleStar probe adds sub-micron accuracy surface scanning capability with a long working distance and the ability to measure on very steep slopes, or up to 25 mm inside high aspect ratio bores. The technology is similar to our popular TeleStar Plus through-lens laser offered on SmartScope Vantage systems. The TeleStar probe is available worldwide. Another new product that debuted at IMTS was our Fusion™ LFOV multisensor system.   Fusion combines a unique wide field telecentric optics system with a range of high performance sensors to and advanced ZONE3 metrology software that can identify and measure features with no pre-programming needed. Fusion technology can dramatically increase measurement throughput and productivity, particularly in high mix environments in which part designs are frequently changing. 

IMNA: In what areas, or departments, do you continue to invest?

Flynn: We continually invest in technology, people and products to continually improve the capability we can offer our customers. Our internal R&D teams have introduced a wide range of new sensors, platforms and software in the past several years, and our Global Services team have set up a state of the art technology and training centre inside our headquarters to train our global employees and partners in the new products. In Asia, we continue to invest in our facilities and our local teams to give our customers convenient local demonstration, training and service capabilities. 

IMNA: How involved is the company, from a manufacturing and a marketing standpoint, in Asia?

Flynn: Our parent company, Quality Vision International, designs and manufactures all OGP products at our headquarters in the U.S. As a company, we source best of breed components from more than 27 different countries around the world. The South East Asia region is an important source of supply for many components and sub-assemblies that go into OGP systems. Our global logistics group recently increased their direct staff and facilities in South East Asia to be close to this supplier base. From a marketing standpoint, our philosophy has always been that the local team working with the customers are in the best position to determine the needs of the marketplace. Teams from our headquarters are here in the region frequently, and our local team members also visit the factory regularly to share ideas and develop solutions to customer needs. 

IMNA: How are you handling the economic slowdown in some key industries in South East Asia? What measures are you taking to help your customers?

Flynn: This has been a year of uncertainty in the global economy - the U.S. elections, the Brexit vote and other political events have created economic headwinds, but now that those events have unfolded, the headwinds seem to be easing. We experienced very little slow down in our business in South East Asia, in spite of the strong U.S. Dollar. We believe the markets have held up as well as they have because manufacturers are continuing to invest in quality and process improvement tools. For our part, we have continued to introduce new technologies and products and work with customers to upgrade and extend their existing measurement systems as much as practical. We try our utmost to be a reliable partner for our customers.