Worthing-based loudspeaker manufacturer Bowers & Wilkins (B&W) has had its Baty profile projector upgraded by Burgess Hill-based Baty International Ltd, which is part of the Bowers Group (
www.bowersgroup.co.uk).
B&W’s (
www.bowerswilkins.com speakers contain small delicate parts that are difficult to measure with CMM machines or calipers, as these require the parts to be touched, thereby increasing the likelihood of the parts becoming distorted or damaged.
Baty International upgraded the company’s Baty R14-GXL Shadowgraph to an R14-FT2E, enabling it to benefit from the Fusion 2-D touch-screen digital read-out (DRO) and optical edge detection not offered on the previous model.
David Naylor, B&W’s quality supervisor, said: “Highly accurate perfectly made components are essential for the quality of our products, and the Baty unit enables us to meet those standards by ensuring repeatable and accurate measurements.”
B&W has had an R14 GXL Shadowgraph for over 25 years, but the DRO developed a small fault after decades of use, prompting the company to look into options for a replacement.
After receiving an email from Bowers Group regarding its retrofit services from the team at Baty, B&W decided to upgrade its existing machine, dramatically enhancing the functionality and accuracy of the profile projector without incurring the expense of a brand-new machine.
Mr Naylor said: “We’re very pleased with the retrofit. It has completely solved the problems with the old DRO and made the unit function like a new machine.
"It’s still very user-friendly, and the operators are able to use it comprehensively with fairly basic training.
"We’d never had optical edge detection until the upgrade; it has significantly increased the speed of the measurement process, and the touch-screen is really easy to use.”