Established in 1954, Main Tool Co is a precision engineering business located in Bellshill, central Scotland. During its 60 years of trading, the company has developed a wide variety of capabilities that allow it to serve a range of industries, including oil and gas, as well as aerospace.

Having established an excellent reputation for quality, Main Tool now boasts many international corporations as its customers; and to ensure that it maintains this reputation, the company continually invests in the most up to date manufacturing technology. As a result, its design and manufacturing facility is equipped with the latest CNC machine tools and ancillary equipment. For example, all of its CNC machines are DNC-linked to two MasterCAM programming stations, allowing the most complex of projects to be undertaken, lead times to be cut and cost-effective quotations to be supplied.

Mindful of its customers’ need to shorten their supply chains, Main Tool offers a range of turn-key solutions; in addition to its machining capability, the company and its sub-contract partners provide a variety of complementary services. These include material procurement, welding, surface treatment and assembly.

Although Main Tool’s growing workload can be accommodated by its wide range of CNC machine tools, the company’s increasing throughput was threatening to cause hold-ups in its final-inspection department. QA manager Stewart Miller says: “In addition to an ever increasing amount of work coming from our existing customers, we have recently won contracts from several major new customers; and because it was likely that our increasing production volumes would place a strain on our existing manual and CNC co-ordinate measuring machines, we investigated a number of CMMs that could help to maintain our high quality standards and increase our inspection throughput. The accuracy of the CMM that we were to purchase was obviously of paramount importance, but the machine’s speed of operation was also a major consideration.”

Alternative supplier

Having had demonstrations from its existing CMM supplier, as well from several other manufacturers, Main Tool opted for a Zenith Too CNC CMM from Aberlink Innovative Metrology, Gloucestershire (www.aberlink.co.uk). “We currently operate two machines from one of the world’s largest CMM manufacturers, so it would have been an easy decision to remain loyal to our existing brand,” said Mr Miller.

“However, having compared the Aberlink offering to the latest models from our existing supplier — as well as to machines from other manufacturers — the CNC Zenith Too was considered the one that best satisfied all our requirements, particularly in terms of speed and accuracy. It was also the least costly option.

“After the Aberlink training course and just a minimum of time using the machine, our QC personnel were soon up to speed with the new CMM’s operation. Indeed, the Zenith Too’s software is very easy to use, and our operators are now able to write, save and recall measurement programs. Moreover, because this CMM has a large ‘component support’, we can measure a single large part or numerous smaller parts in automatic CNC mode; and after completing a measuring routine, we can also produce a variety of inspection reports. Since it was installed, the Zenith Too has both improved our accuracy capability and speeded up the throughput of work in our quality department.”

Aluminium structure

Now it its third decade of operation, Aberlink is the largest UK-owned CMM manufacturer. The company’s Zenith Too range consists of 10 machines with work envelopes from 1,000 x 1,000 x 600mm to 1,000 x 3,000 x 800mm. These machines feature an all-aluminium construction, ‘advanced drive design’ and raised guideways, to ensure low-inertia characteristics and high operating speeds.

Moreover, accuracy and repeatability are enhanced by the fact that the machine’s measuring structure is independent of its granite surface table; and although Aberlink CMMs are ideally suited to use in inspection departments with environment control, it is on the shopfloor that the Zenith Too’s low thermal mass and robust build come to the fore, allowing the measurement of large components near their point of manufacture.

The new Zenith Too is complemented by intuitive Windows-based software; furthermore, any Zenith Too CMM inspection routine allows a simultaneous picture of the measured component to be created in real time on the operator’s computer screen.

Further improving Aberlink’s Zenith Too series is a range of recently released improvements; these include an ergonomically adjustable arm that supports the machine’s keyboard, mouse and 22in flat-screen monitor.