On the other hand, some people find thinking big, not only easy, but necessary. Which is exactly the case at Irvine, CA’s Coast Composites, Inc., a large aerospace job shop dedicated to producing large precision molds used by aircraft and other manufacturers for production of composite components.

“At Coast Composites we have to think big,” says Steve Anthony, company IT manager, who joined Coast in 1990 and has a B.S. degree in information technology. “Some of the high-precision tooling we produce for customers is really huge, up to 100-feet long. As a result, we’re currently located in an 85,000 square-feet facility, and we’re in the process of adding another 114,000 square feet. When you build huge tooling you need lots of room.”

To illustrate the size of the molds Coast produces, Anthony points to a project the company is working on for the new Boeing 787 wing.

“We’re making a 108-foot metal mold that has to be shipped to Japan,” he says, “The problem is the mold is so big we’re having considerable trouble transporting it within the United States.”

In the past many of Coast molds were made from graphite blocks, but today it’s a different story.

“Originally we used monolithic graphite for large satellite reflectors,” Anthony says. “We machined it down from a big huge block to a very accurate mold for antenna reflectors that go into space. Nowadays we mostly make molds for the aerospace industry for carbon fiber and composite applications, so now we’re using Invar, aluminum and several other metals, but mostly Invar.”

To meet demands to produce large molds, Coast has accumulated a hall of giant milling machines. (see photo on next page), including a 6-axis Henri Line Promill 252 16,000-rpm gantry mill with travels of x= 720”, y= 198” and z and w= 112”.

“All of our machines are big by necessity,” Anthony says. “If we have to mill smaller stuff, we often sub out to a local shop. We operate Henri Lines, SNKs, Wotans, Nicolas Correas and Amuras, all big stuff.”

Big Parts, Tight Tolerances

In spite of the size of the molds it produces (2 to 60 feet long), there is no lessening of the tolerances Coast must meet to satisfy customer specifications.

“We’re talking fine finishes and tolerances of four to five thou over a 50-60-foot length,” Anthony says. “And, like any other QC requirement, we have to be able to prove to our customers that we have met or exceeded their specs. To do that has taken us into some interesting new technologies.”

Originally, the company did most of its QC using probes on their mills, but that answer had drawbacks.

“The problem was probing tied up our machines,” Anthony explains. “We did in-process inspection, then pulled the parts off to do final assembly, but then we had to put the assembly back on the machine to do final inspection. That was time consuming. We needed a better way to do it.”
That better way turned out to be portable CMMs.

“In a regular job shop, when a part is machined, you either check it on machine using probing or you take it to a CMM somewhere,” he says. “In our case, though, the parts are just too big to move. So, we long ago figured out we had to bring the CMM to the parts. So, when the technology for portable CMMs became available, we jumped on it.”

Coast invested in some of the very earliest portable laser tracker CMMs, which were good, but not perfect.

“Laser trackers are a great concept,” Anthony says. “They’re fast and accurate over very long distances, but in the beginning the CAD software that drove those machines wasn’t very powerful. Today, though, that problem has mostly been solved. We’ve been using Faro laser trackers for several years, which was a major improvement over on-machine probing, but still had drawbacks in its software capabilities.”

New Technology to the Rescue

Five or six years ago Coast Composites was approached by a man named Ernie Husted, who had created a new software company he called Verisurf Software, Inc., located in Anaheim, California.

“Ernie said his software was a model-based manufacturing inspection solution that could interface with nearly any measurement metrology devices, including our Faro Laser Trackers, recalls Anthony.

Coast people were a bit skeptical at first, but decided to buy one seat to test it with their Faro trackers.

“We were very pleased with the result,” says Anthony. “Ernie had solved most of the problems we faced at the time. Verisurf actually sits on top of Mastercam, so it had all the import capabilities of Mastercam. Basically, when you buy Verisurf, you’re buying a seat of Mastercam, too, which provides a full suite of CAD modeling features, including solids, surfaces, wireframe and drafting, plus all the translators we needed for our customers’ CAD platforms. But the main thing was that Verisurf made those Faro arms do everything they’re mechanically capable of doing.”

The Verisurf software also offers all the reporting capabilities Coast needs, Anthony reports.

“All of our customers of course require different reporting,” he says. “Verisurf has an HTML-based report format that you can customize.Basically we can give customers any kind of report they want, including raw point data. If Verisurf collects data, it can report it.”

How Offline Inspection Works

For most aerospace projects, Coast receives a solid model of the component mold they’re building. Included with the model are all the critical dimensions and inspection points.

“For QA purposes, we import the model into Verisurf, and then our guys move the reflective mirror to collect all the points that have to be verified. They push a button on their pendant and Verisurf records the point. Or they can scan thousands of points to get a point cloud in a given area. Either way, Verisurf records it all and compares the data against the model. If there’s a problem, it lets the operator know immediately.”

One recent innovation from Verisurf is it’s ability to allow the operator to use a PDA to read the data collected.

“When you’re inspecting really huge projects, the operator can get too far from the PC monitor to read it,” says Anthony. “So Verisurf has come up with the ability to transmit the data via wireless to a PDA device. We use Dell Axims, so now the operator can look at his PDA and see what’s happening. It’s fast and very efficient.

Other Uses for the Verisurf/Faro Team

Coast also uses the Verisurf and Faro laser tracker combo during assembly of their molds.

“The system works perfectly to help us locate points on the mold for brackets, holes, you name it,” Anthony says. “The model tells you where it wants a hole or a part to be assembled. The operator moves the little mirror to find the exact location on the assembly. He marks the spot and he done. It’s that simple. It’s a fantastic time saver. No more measuring and checking the old-fashioned way.”

Coast also uses the Verisurf/Faro portable system at customer sites to help set up their molds.

“We use them for leveling, dimensioning, and inspection,” he says. “The whole setup consists of the Faro laser tracker and a PC on wheels. Its very portable.”

Advantages of Offline Inspection

How has Coast Composites benefited since it began to utilize Verisurf with the Faro laser trackers?

“In a nutshell the offline system has made our life a lot easier,” he says. “First it speeds up our manufacturing process by eliminating the need for on-machine inspection. Second it greatly speeds the mold assembly process by allowing us to quickly locate holes and components and to level the molds. Third, our customers make a lot of revisions. Verisurf can read those and give us the new data we need for checking. I really can’t put a number on our savings, but it has been significant. It can easily equate to weeks in terms of faster throughput.”

And, of course, there is the solution to the first big problem the company faced with QA.

“Basically, offline inspection with Verisurf and the laser tracker has allowed us to perform all the QA tasks we need to do to make our customers happy. That’s really the bottom line for us.”

And where does Coast go from here?

“Where we go and what we do will most likely be dictated by the demands of the industry,” Anthony says. “That probably means we will have to go on thinking bigger and bigger as customers want us to build bigger and bigger molds. Part of my job is to scan for new technology that will help us be more competitive and to move parts out the door faster. The Verisurf and Faro laser tracker QA system is just one example of what we’re doing. The future is now.”

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