Good metrology Simplified

 Precision is of utmost importance in the manufacturing industry, particularly where safety is directly related to accuracy. This is especially true for manufacturers whose products cater to high risk industries. As a casting and valve component supplier, Flow Link Systems (FLS) understands these considerations well. Based in Coimbatore, India, FLS makes valve components and industrial valves for use in oil, gas, petrochemical, mining, paper and pulp, and food industries. FLS products help connect and regulate pipelines that carry gases, vapours or fluids, sometimes of high temperatures, speed and pressure.
 Established in 1992, FLS places great emphasis on quality and customer satisfaction, two attributes that have shaped and steered the company for nearly two decades. FLS kept its customers happy and stayed ahead of competition by upholding the quality of its products. In a bid to fulfil its continued commitment to maintaining high quality standards, FLS made a significant move two years ago to purchase a new measuring system from FARO. Since then, FLS has enjoyed higher productivity and efficiency, on top of better accuracy and precision in their products.

 One tool for several needs
 Certified by various international authorities, FLS has in place stringent quality control processes, a part of which involves taking measurements of the products. "We conduct inspection checks and dimensional calculations to make sure our valves are made according to design," Balu P., quality assurance manager, said. "Sometimes, we need to take measurements to document a component's dimensions too."
 Equipped with a 6-ft FaroArm? on the shop floor, FLS can now breeze through the inspection checks. The FaroArm not only offered higher accuracy and precision, it also brought convenience and higher productivity. "Previously, we used special gauges, plain plug gauges, and even made our own templates to check that the components matched," shared Balu. "The level of accuracy was only up to 30 microns' tolerance. With the FaroArm, all our measurements can be performed by this one tool, and accuracy is now up to 10 microns' tolerance."
 FLS also had concerns about larger jobs in the past, where the valve component being produced was beyond the capabilities of existing measurement tools. Prior to the purchase of the FaroArm, FLS took measurements with a mechanical height gage to make manual calculations. "If a component was too large for the gage to measure, it was a problem. Moving it for inspection was another hurdle as it was very tedious," expressed Balu, "A flexible, portable solution was clearly what we needed, and we found it in the FaroArm. Size was no longer an issue."

Complex measurements made easy
 A considerable portion of FLS' inspection work is performing Geometric Dimensioning & Tolerancing (GD&T) checks on the different valves it produces (e.g. wedge gate, knife gate, swing check, tilting disc check, globe, ball and control valves). Some GD&T checks are particularly complex and time-consuming to perform.
 For instance, the bore-to-bore concentricity tolerance requires the median points of the bores to fall within a tolerance zone. Cylindricity, the quality of being a true cylinder or true roundness, is another complex GD&T check that FLS had to deal with. FARO solutions helped FLS perform these analyses more confidently, and also allowed the company to enjoy substantial time-savings in the process. " Before we bought the FaroArm, it was very difficult to obtain accuraOff White X Vapormax Flair