Gear maker measures gains

In almost every corner of its 35,000sq/ft factory, there is evidence of Ondrives commitment to delivering the best products it possibly can to its customers. From high-end CNC machining centres to state-of-the-art offline tool setting technology, its Chesterfield headquarters has got the lot. Like any successful company, Ondrives’ positive reputation precedes it – that is why it has invested in a VICIVISION system from the Carfulan Group. 

Established in 1995, but with origins dating back more than 80 years, Ondrives has designed and made more gears and gearboxes than it’s possible to remember. The bespoke product range covers everything from spur and helical gears to gear splines, worm wheels, spiral bevel and hypoid gears. The company supplies market segments such as aerospace, motorsport and bespoke general OEM engineering machines – in fact, any industry where precision is a prerequisite.

Ondrives Chairman Ben Hinchliffe said: “People don’t just want something that’s a standard shape or form. They want exactly what they want for their machine to make it the most efficient or the best, and we’re able to do that fairly easily because we invest in the equipment to allow us to do it. When you walk around Ondrives and see the machinery, software, equipment and people, it’s a modern facility. When somebody buys a one-off, hundred-off or thousand-off, they’re going to want the very best equipment in the world for making that product.”

Mr Hinchliffe certainly classes VICIVISION in that ‘best equipment in the world’ bracket. Ondrives uses an M309, an optical metrology machine catering specifically for turned, ground and cylindrical parts. “We manufacture for the aerospace and motorsport industries that need tightly controlled components,” said Mr Hinchliffe.

“We started looking at expanding our measurement capability and went down for a demonstration at VICIVISION, took some parts and was impressed with what it was able to produce. We want to be able to measure run-outs, chamfers and corner radii, and to do that in a format that allows us to have printable and saved PDF reports. We’re looking for detail and accuracy and the VICIVISION is a perfect product for that.”
Using a combination of advanced video camera technology and light projection, VICIVISION’s Techno range automatically delivers fast, detailed and consistent results independent of the operator. Even the most complex part features can be inspected in seconds, down to the last detail. Mr Hinchliffe added: “The actual accuracy of the machine when it is producing measurements is great. In fact, it’s got a nice couple of features on it where it will go and calibrate itself before it starts a process of measuring.”

“We have parts where we’ll measure some radii, lengths and diameters which will then be processed for gear cutting and then when they get onto precision grinding, they return to the VICIVISION and are then measured for a tolerance that’s +/-2.5 microns. If you’re producing a big quantity and you’re getting the reports to back that up for customers it’s excellent. It means the blanks can meet that quality and exceed it, and you can’t ask for more than that.”

Thanks to their wide measuring fields, impressive load capacities, high-resolution capabilities and intuitive software, VICIVISION Techno systems meet both current and future manufacturing demands by guaranteeing speed, efficiency and precision in all measurement tasks. The improvements they bring to quality control processes can contribute to a significant reduction in rejects and rework, immediately increasing throughput and positively impacting profitability.

“For optical scanning, a machine like the VICIVISION is a must in our industry. You need this type of equipment to verify the component you are making,” said Mr Hinchliffe. “You can scan it instantaneously. If it’s a component that takes 60 seconds to scan on a VICIVISION, it might be a 20-minute job on a CMM. So, if you’re doing 400 components, and you want to inspect one out of 10 or even every one, this is the type of machine you’ve got to use. Once we’d had the demonstration with the VICIVISION and saw the report layout it was able to produce and the accuracy of the products, it sold itself.”

“It’s worth the extra investment to buy a machine like this and also spend time with the right people to learn how to use it, because when you do, the benefits you get are immeasurable. It can measure, but the benefits will be immeasurable to you as a company.”

Based at its state-of-the-art Innovation Centre in Derbyshire, VICIVISION UK has a team of vastly experienced engineers with a thorough knowledge of the full hardware and software range. By offering installation, calibration, fixturing solutions, programme creation, applications support and bespoke training, the company’s turnkey packages make for smooth project set-ups so that customers will start reaping the advantages of optical measurement from day one.

Mr Hinchliffe concludes: “The VICIVISION has improved quality all the way along the process chain. You’ve got to invest in measurement machines to get the most out of the product you’re going to make. Nowadays, if you want to be in the industry that we are in – a first-class, quality product company – you have to be able to invest in this type of technology.”