Quality
Measured, not assumed
The inspection room tells you more about a machine shop than the machine list does. Ours was put together to prove sealing surfaces and precision bores in quantity, which is what valve and fluid power work asks for.
Instruments
What each one proves
- Coordinate measuring
- Accurate Spectra 3D CNC CMM, 600 × 1000 × 500 mm, granite on every axis, air bearings, Renishaw probe. Length error is held to 1.5 + L/350 µm under ISO 10360-2, so across a 300 mm part the machine contributes about 2.4 µm to the reading. Geometry, true position and GD&T are taken against the drawing datums.
- Contour testing
- Mahr MarSurf CD 140 AG 11, 350 mm probe arm across a 140 mm traverse, contacting error 0.75 µm. Groove and seat profiles, radii and angles. A groove can pass on width and depth and still leak, because it is the profile that holds the seal.
- Surface roughness
- Mitutoyo Surftest SJ-410, 800 µm range, resolving to 0.000125 µm, carrying 46 parameters to current ISO, DIN, ANSI and JIS. A sealing or bearing face at the wrong finish will weep or wear however round it is, and it is often Rz, Rk or Rmr that condemns it while Ra reads fine.
- Optical
- Shadowgraph with automated image analysis, for small profiled parts at production speed.
- Height and layout
- 2D electronic height gauge and Mitutoyo digital height gauges.
- Hardness
- Several types, which close out induction hardening on the same site rather than on somebody’s certificate.
- Production gauging
- Air gauges for mass produced bores, custom gauges where a feature deserves one, thread gauges and Go / No-Go gauges.
Air gauging is the quiet one. It is quick enough to check every piece in a batch rather than a first-off and a sample, which is the difference between believing a process is capable and knowing it.
What the numbers mean
Measured capability, and held capability
Three different figures get quoted as though they were the same thing, and they are not. A machine’s own accuracy describes its axes against a test piece. What an inspection room can resolve is a second figure. What a shop holds on a real part, over a real batch, with fixturing and tool wear in the way, is a third. Only the third one answers a buyer’s question, so the figures below are separated rather than blurred together.
- What is measured, and how closely
- The instruments above are the answer, and their figures are published rather than described. Traceable calibration sits behind them.
- What has been held
- Cast iron and ductile iron hubs up to 40 kg have been produced with the bore held to 0.005 mm. Five microns on a bore that size, in iron, is a reasonable measure of what the process is capable of when the drawing asks for it.
- General tolerances
- Unspecified dimensions are worked to ISO 2768, and the class applying to your order is confirmed on the quotation rather than assumed.
- Your drawing governs
- Where a characteristic is critical, capability is confirmed against that characteristic before the order is accepted. A tolerance that a process cannot hold repeatably is better refused at quotation than discovered at first article.
Ask for capability data on a characteristic that matters to you and it will be sent, taken from production rather than from a sales sheet. That is a more useful question to ask a supplier than what machines they own.
Certification
The supply route, stated plainly
- Anicon Flowcontrols LLP
- ISO 9001:2015
- Versatile Equipments Pvt Ltd
- IATF 16949 and ISO 9001:2015
- Where IATF applies
- The part is supplied through Versatile Equipments under its IATF 16949 certification.
- Anicon IATF 16949
- In progress.
If your commodity code calls for IATF, say so with the enquiry. The order is then routed that way from the start, rather than the question surfacing at audit when it costs both of us time.
What comes with the parts
Dimensional reports against the drawing, material test certificates from the mill or foundry, hardness results where parts are heat treated, and first article documentation on request. Tell us at enquiry stage what your quality system needs and it is priced in rather than argued about later.
Send the drawing
A straight answer inside a working day
A 2D or 3D file, the quantity and the date you need it. You will get a considered reply within one working day, including the reply that we are not the right shop for the part, which is worth knowing early. A mutual NDA goes out first if you would rather.