Cornwall-based DP Engineering (www.dpengineeringltd.co.uk), a precision sub-contract engineering specialist, has built a strong reputation for delivering high-quality products since it was established almost 70 years ago.

The often critical components that it machines are used in the marine, aerospace, defence, oil and gas, pneumatics, medical, leisure and tourism sectors, so form, function and safety cannot be compromised.

Operating on both a large and small scale, the Redruth company prides itself on offering a ‘state of the art’ engineering service to clients, where accuracy is paramount.

DP Engineering’s sales engineer, Philip Anthony, said: “Being in the sub-contract business, we get left behind if we don’t keep on top of new technology.

"We always try to invest in technology and — at the end of the day — offer a higher standard of service to our customers.”

One area identified by the company as ready for improvement was the quality control side of its operations, where it has in the past been heavily reliant on time-consuming manual inspection methods.

DP Engineering turned to Vicivision UK — a leading supplier of optical, non-contact, turned-part measurement machines and quality control systems in the UK and Ireland — for advice.

This led to the installation of a shopfloor-ready M309 system designed to measure cylindrical components quickly and with absolute precision.

Mr Anthony added: “We’re seeing the benefits on components with a lot of external features. Whereas we used to have to make checks using different bits of kit — such as external lengths on a shadowgraph, contracer and height gauges — now it can all be done on one machine.

"There are features you can measure on the Vicivision that you can’t measure on a co-ordinate measuring machine, so we use them in parallel.

"We make our money from cutting metal, and the M309 has certainly reduced our down-time.”