SIMPLIFYING METROLOGY SYSTEM SELECTION FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS Tips for choosing the right vision system Ensuring stringent medical part quality is challenging, but with the right vision system, manufacturers can utilize powerful technology to help determine that the challenges are being met. Vision systems are crucial to minimizing waste and saving time and money throughout the manufacturing process. Quick inspection checks are often used in-process to determine that design specifications are being met. Tolerancing can be used to confirm that intricate features are being produced accurately, within an acceptable range. Automated pattern recognition enables virtually any employee on a shop or manufacturing floor to run complex inspection routines with minimal training and obtain accurate and repeatable results, eliminating QC bottlenecks. Errors can be caught in real time and adjusted in-process, so that the finished product is right the first time, preventing costly rework or scrap. Multi-sensor measurement systems in particular, which include functionality such as vision and touch probe capability, help solve many of the measurement and inspection challenges arising in medical manufacturing. Providing exceptional speed and efficiency, a multi-sensor measurement system can easily increase QC throughput by performing multiple processes on a single machine, while maintaining accuracy. Following some simple steps for selecting a vision or multi-sensor vision system will serve medical manufacturers well, and help to avoid making costly selection mistakes. Step 1: Know Your Parts To select the right system for your needs, first identify the range of parts requiring QC and their corresponding requirements. For example, medical part specifications are often tight, requiring precise dimensions, printed documentation, and part-number tracing. Identifying the key areas upfront will help to streamline the next step, which is
to contact a reputable and knowledgeable metrology system supplier/ manufacturer. Step 2: Partner with Knowledgeable, Experienced Medical Metrology Supplier
It is critical to consult, and ultimately partner with, a respected and experienced metrology system supplier that offers the latest vision system technology for medical manufacturing, and who either manufactures or sources solutions from a manufacturer who is continually enhancing capabilities through ongoing research and development. There are many aspects of manufacturing that are unique to the medical device industry including having to work with highly reflective finishes, complex curves, unique thread specifications and micro-etching. Coordinating with a supplier that is well versed in these distinctive challenges can help in selecting the right metrology system, configured with the proper lens, lighting, software and accessory options.
Complex pieces, such as a hip joint insert, require a large FOV in order to fit the entire part profile in its view for measurement and inspection.
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