Birmingham-based C Brandauer & Co Ltd (www.brandauer.co.uk) was founded 154 years ago and is now one of the largest independent sub-contract presswork and stamping companies in Europe.

Employing 56 people, it specialises in manufacturing precision-stamped components for clients involved in a wide range of industries, including automotive, domestic goods, electronics and renewables.

Brandauer makes prototype parts, undertakes the design and in-house production of tooling and offers a low-volume special-product manufacturing service; the company is also committed to continuous investment, as demonstrated by the recent £750,000 investment in two Bruderer presses and a £400,000 Microsoft Navision MRP system.

These presses, along with other production-related purchases, allow Brandauer to meet an ever-increasing demand — currently millions of parts every month.

To accommodate these volumes, the company needs to ensure that its inspection capabilities and capacity match them, hence the recent purchase of a 3-D CNC vision measuring system from Andover-based Mitutoyo UK (www.mitutoyo.co.uk).

Robert Freeman, Brandauer’s quality assurance manager, said: “Our investments go well beyond the acquisition of cutting-edge production technology, as we put just as much resource and attention into the on-going development of our quality management systems.

For example, we hold all of the major quality and environmental accreditations appropriate to our key markets; moreover, our operations are managed and benchmarked through real-time data collection and strictly monitored performance indicators.

This allows us to export more than 75% of our products — to customers in China, the EU and the USA.

“Our inspection equipment needs to be highly automated, fast, accurate and repeatable. Our first Mitutoyo CNC vision measuring system was installed 17 years ago; and because it was highly successful, two further systems were soon added.

“On-going increases in production have necessitated further investment; but to ensure that we were buying the latest technology in the ‘measuring’ field, we ‘benchmarked’ the latest Mitutoyo vision measuring equipment against systems from other manufacturers. We finally selected Mitutoyo’s Quick Vision Elf Pro.”

Brandauer’s inspection personnel can now load multiple parts, recall the appropriate program and initiate an automatic CNC measuring routine. Furthermore, the system’s speed means that the company has significantly reduced its previous inspection times.

Mr Freeman says: “Many of the components we manufacture have demanding tolerances, but the precision and speed of the Quick Vision Elf Pro mean that we can give prompt feedback to production regarding component features that are beginning to deviate from their nominal conditions, thereby ensuring that no reject parts are sent to the customer.”

This CNC vision measuring system has a resolution of 0.1µm and provides an accuracy of 2.3µm on dimensions up to 100mm. It has a measuring volume of 250 x 200 x 200mm and can accommodate a number of smaller components or a single larger part.

The axes can move at 200mm/sec, and programmable ring lighting provides flexibility with regard to lighting direction, angle and intensity — regardless of the inclination of the workpiece surface.

This capability allows maximum surface contrast to be achieved, along with the best imaging resolution and accuracy.

Fine control of “obliquity and direction” provides optimal illumination for accurate measurement.

Obliquity can be set in the range 30 to 80deg, with the illumination being particularly effective for enhancing the edges of inclined surfaces or very small steps.

Moreover, the illumination can be controlled independently in every direction, while a programmable power turret offers a ‘three-tube lens’ that provides three magnifications with the same objective lens.

Furthermore, replacement objective lenses provide a wide magnification range that supports a broad variety of measurements.