FARO ‘Inserts’ Quality with GWP
The FARO Gage has helped to slash the time taken to measure customers’ components and create profiles for manufacturing of high quality protective case solutions. GWP Protective is a leading UK designer and manufacturer of custom flight cases and protective case solutions, the company have a particular expertise in engineered foam inserts.
From GWP Protective’s advanced design and production facility in Salisbury Wiltshire, the company supplies high quality protective case solutions to a wide range of demanding industries including the Defence, Aerospace, Oil & Gas, Medical, Electronics and Automotive sectors.
GWP Protective work closely with a wide range of clients, throughout the UK, Europe and increasingly beyond. Since GWP Protective was formed in 1990, the company has developed a wealth of knowledge and engineering expertise within the field of creating bespoke foam inserts for the protection of the goods carried in their protective cases. Using the latest CNC routing, water-jet and pressing technology, GWP Protective manufacture custom foam inserts from a variety of high quality materials such as Plastazote and other cross-linked polyethylene foams.
GWP Protective are continually investigating ways of enhancing its design and manufacturing functions. Mr Jon Cooper, GWP Protective Engineering Manager explained, “GWP Protective’s success has been achieved through our expertise in offering unrivalled protective solutions for high value, delicate and sensitive equipment or products. We provide our service through offering a combination of traditional flight cases and branded protective cases. In addition, we design and manufacture high quality bespoke foam inserts that are custom made to match the profiles of the equipment that is to be carried in our range of cases.
“Our experienced sales and design teams work closely with our customers to provide innovative, cost-effective protective solutions. Based on the profiles of the products to be carried, we are able to create suitable foam insert designs by utilising the latest digitising hardware and CAD software that is linked directly to our state-of-the-art foam conversion facility. Our highly engineered foam inserts can be tailored perfectly not only to the products they will protect, but also to the specified exterior case – be it a custom built flight case, waterproof case, aluminium container or any of the branded options for which we are official distributors.
Mr Cooper continued. “As we pursue a policy of continuous improvement, we are constantly searching for technologies that will enable us to maintain our high quality standards, speed-up our processes and provide value for money protective solutions for our customers. A case in point was our recent purchase of an advanced Gage measuring arm from FARO UK. Although the previous device that we used for measuring the 2D dimensions of customers’ products, prior to manufacturing suitable inserts, was adequate for our needs, in accordance with our on-going quest for progress, we identified this process as an area that could be improved. Having had demonstrations of several different technologies and products, we decided that the FARO Gage was the ideal product for our specific needs.”
“As the Gage is so easy to use, following a brief training session and short learning curve, we quickly became proficient in its operation. Now in constant use, the measuring arm has enabled us to slash the time taken to measure customers’ components and to create profiles that can be used to generate CAD programs for manufacturing. As demand for our products is constantly growing, the speed of the Gage has removed the potential for hold-ups within our important customer component measuring function.
“In addition to our new FaroArm having the ideal measuring envelope for the products that we measure, the impressive accuracy of the Gage ensures that we are able to produce high quality foam inserts that provide the correct, slight interference-fit, with the products they are designed to protect. This optimum fit provides maximum protection in transit and enables easy component retrieval,” he said.
Mr Cooper concluded. “As some of our customers operate within sensitive areas, occasionally they are reluctant to leave their components with us to enable measuring routines to take place. A major advantage of the use of the Gage is its portability, as it is relatively light, now, when required we are able to place it in its carrying case, take it to a customer’s premises and measure their parts in-situ. This on-site service has proved very popular and has further enhanced the services that we provide to our customers.”
The FARO Gage measuring arm is an accurate 3D gauge and is an industry leader within the field of portable CMMs. Ending customers reliance on expensive and hard-to-use fixed CMMs, the Gage offers high accuracy levels and improved measurement consistency.
Made specifically for use by shop floor personnel, users are able to set-up the Gage in seconds and measure parts and assemblies easily, quickly, and accurately, and if required automatically generate detailed inspection reports.
The use of the flexible Gage brings an end to cluttered inspection areas, as this single tool is able to carry-out all of the precise measuring tasks previously performed by countless measuring devices.
Equally at home within a dedicated quality department, or on the shop floor, the Gage has built-in temperature and overload sensors that allow it to detect and react to change and continue to provide optimum accuracy. In addition, internal counterbalancing limits user fatigue. If required, Bluetooth connectivity allows the Gage to provide cable-free operation over a distance of 10m (30 ft.).