Motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield has boosted its productivity and improved its quality control checks, thanks to a Romer portable measuring arm from Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence.

Engineers are using this equipment for a wide range of scanning and inspection tasks at the company’s new research and design facility in Leicestershire.

The 3m-long arm’s capabilities have impressed the chassis development team at Royal Enfield, as it allows them to fully inspect some motorcycles ‘in one go’, without having to re-position the kit.

For other motorcycles, ‘leapfrogging’ using the arm and Polyworks software is quick and easy.

Project engineer Chris Hunt said that the inspection data is used not only to verify prototype motorcycles in relation to their CAD model but also to check off-line production tolerance and build quality.

“The Romer arm has helped us to improve accuracy, reduce user error and save time. It is very quick and extremely user-friendly. Hexagon’s training and technical-support services are very good, with staff always on hand to guide us through any problems and new challenges (www.hexagonmi.com).”

Dave King, Royal Enfield’s motorcycle accessories quality assurance manager, favoured the Romer arm over competitors’ products mainly because of its calibration feature.

“We required a portable measuring arm for scanning prototype parts to confirm accuracy and benchmark our products for design development, so the calibration feature was a key point for me.

“The Romer arm’s calibration bar and process are particularly beneficial to our operations, as a lot of uncertainty on the measuring arm is removed.”