Established in 1969 and based in Hadleigh, Suffolk,
Skar Precision Mouldings has grown to become one of the UK’s largest injection moulding businesses. The company operates 35 high-yield machines ranging from 22 to 450 tonnes and a maximum shot weight of 2.4kg; these machines are run for 24hr, five days a week.
Furthermore, given the nature of the global medical sector, Skar adheres to a stringent quality assurance regime and ensures that strict control and monitoring procedures are built into every aspect of the business’s activities.
The requirement to undertake high-precision inspection routines and to provide detailed inspection reports related to complex components produced for a multi-national manufacturer of medical analysis equipment, recently prompted Skar to search for a new CMM.
The company finally selected a Crysta-Apex S CMM from Andover-based
Mitutoyo (UK) Ltd. The S 574 model, as purchased by Skar, has a work envelope of 500 x 700 x 400mm and guarantees a maximum permissible length measurement error of E0, MPE=(1.7+3L/1,000)μm.
Because the Mitutoyo CMM arrived before the completion of Skar’s new temperature-controlled inspection facility, the company took advantage of several of Mitutoyo UK’s range of customer service provisions.
Paul Chaplin, Skar’s quality engineer and CMM programmer, said: “As we had experienced a delay in the completion of our new inspection department and were unable to make use of our newly delivered CMM, Mitutoyo UK’s measurement services department provided us with a very efficient sub-contract service.
The department inspected and delivered all our fully inspected critical parts on-time, along with the required comprehensive inspection reports.
“Once the building work on our new facility had been completed and our CMM had been installed, to ensure that we were able to make instant use of the machine, Mitutoyo supplied the part programs that we needed and ensured that myself and a colleague received in-depth training.
“Although we have found the CRYSTA-Apex S CMM easy to use, it helps that on the rare occasion that we have a problem, Mitutoyo staff are always on hand to provide useful support.”