West Midlands-based Widney Manufacturing Ltd (www.widney.co.uk) is a prime example of a business that has not only survived but flourished through its ability to evolve and adapt to the demands of ever-changing markets.

Founded in 1886 as a manufacturer of components for horse-drawn carriages, the company has continually developed new product lines and is a global leader in the design and manufacture of vehicle windows, vehicle sun blinds and telescopic slides.

Widney’s 17,000m² manufacturing plant currently uses advanced CNC machining, bending and fabrication processes, as well as sophisticated welding technology.

The company recently invested in an eight-axis QuantumE ScanArm to ensure that its quality assurance function can keep pace with increased production levels.

Supplied by Faro UK (www.faro.com), this advanced metrology system combines a portable QuantumE FaroArm with a FAROBlu Laser Line Probe HD/SD.

Following its installation and a brief operator training session, it is now being used to produce accurate 3-D dimensional data.

Widney quality engineer Stuart Stanton said “As well as being used to undertake standard measuring routines and part comparisons to CAD, thanks to its advanced non-contact scanning capabilities, our new ScanArm is also used on complex free-form products that were previously difficult to inspect, such as vehicle windows and assemblies.

"In addition to increasing our accuracy capabilities, the new system has enabled us to achieve significant inspection-time savings.

“The Faro portable metrology solution’s flexible nature means that it can be used across all of our products, and it is proving particularly useful for inspecting first-off parts and in our goods inward department.

"Following goods inward part inspection with our ScanArm, we can now send detailed reports generated by the Faro CAM2 metrology software to our component suppliers.”