Exacting task

Recent years have seen a rapid improvement in the quality of manufactured parts, meaning that a much higher tolerance of inspection is needed.

This has resulted in more accurate and repeatable measuring equipment — plus the ability to calibrate them accurately to comply with ever more stringent regulations.

If anyone had told Mark Eldridge a decade ago that he would be inspecting press-produced components to micron tolerances, he would not have believed them. Yet in his current position as quality manager at

, he is doing just that — on an LK co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM). One example of the accuracy needed is in the ball washer that forms part of the front suspension for a major automotive manufacturer.

The West Midlands pressworker makes 33,000 per week, the bore being the most critical dimension at 17.67mm diameter, +0, -0.04mm. This level of accuracy is required after heat treatment and plating, both of which use up tolerance — so the washers must be accurate to within 30 microns when they come off the presses.