What we have learned from serving the automotive supplier progressive metal stamping industry in Kentucky

1. CREATING CAD DATA FROM DISASTER
Serving a
tough
customer
AUTOMOTIVE PROGRESSIVE DIE DETAIL DAMAGED IN PRODUCTION
When an automotive progressive stamping
die detail is damaged during production it
immediately becomes a 911 type issue for
everyone involved. The original CAD data is
always somewhere, but that somewhere is
not always where it is needed in the moment.
Being in the heart of a state where
automotive employs over 100,000 people
and contributes 14 billion annually to the
economy one can say that automotive is
indeed an important industry. Learning to
support this industry has taught us some
important lessons. Quality is the most
important aspect of what we do, followed by
speed, and reliability.
Quality for us is defined by fidelity to the
original part. Speed is always critical since
“time is money” down time means money
lost per hour. Reliability is defined as being
available whenever needed 24/7 and
standing by what we do. Since, we don’t
always get everything right every time we
stand by our ability to correct mistakes that
we do make quickly.
The part above was an actual part brought in
by a customer. This part had come loose in
the press and was quickly fractured into
multiple pieces. Most of the pieces were in a
box although a few were missing.
Again, speed is important, so we scan the
part and or parts via laser or structured light
scanning and then load the scan data into
software that can be used to create a CAD
model, but we don’t rely on scan data
completely. We also take measurements
with height gages, pin gages, etc. so that we
have hard back up data in-case something
went wrong during the scanning or during
the CAD creation. We then compare the final
CAD data to the scan data in GOM inspection
software to see how close we are to the
original and are we at the tolerances
specified by the customer. We follow a
standard work flow that is documented and
available to the customer so that they can
see that we haven’t skipped any steps.
Hopefully if we got it all right, crises is
averted until Tomorrow anyway.
CAD DATA FROM SCAN OF DIE
Serving the automotive industry is always tough and
some days are tougher than others but sticking to
proven processes deliver consistent results.
Bill Plutnick is a mechanical engineer and owner
of Swiss Metrology Industrial 3D Printing 3D
Scanning in Mt. Sterling, Kentucky USA.
CREATING CAD DATA RAPIDLY
AND ACCURATELY
by Bill Plutnick