TPT January 2011

T echnology U pdate

Aicon 3D Systems GmbH – Germany Fax: +49 531 58 000 60 Email: info@aicon.de Website: www.aicon.de Uwira Oy – Finland Fax: +358 6 315 7601 Email: info@uwira.fi Website: www.leinolatgroup.fi Optical measurement system in Finland

UWIRA Oy, part of Leinolat Group, manufactures welding products for the energy, shipbuilding and machine building sectors. One of Uwira’s special fields is the production of oil and fuel pipes, as well as cooling water lines. The company’s president, Samuli Kuusisto, stated, “It is very important to react immediately to customer wishes. Currently, the most important subject is quality assurance. As our customers themselves have to meet increasing quality standards with their products, we as their supplier have to meet the strictest quality demands, too. By procuring the highly-precise tube measuring system TubeInspect from Aicon, we are now disposing of state-of-the-art measuring equipment for inspecting bended tubes. Thus we are well-prepared for future demands. Beyond that, with TubeInspect, we are in the position to document the measuring results in a traceable way. This builds confidence in our company.” TubeInspect, which measures tube with 16 high resolution digital cameras, calculates the tube’s geometry within only

a few seconds. The measurement results are reported in an easily understandable way, making it clear if the pipe is within or outside tolerance. At the push of a button, TubeInspect generates a user-independent and reproducible measurement report that can be forwarded to the customer. However, Uwira faces more than quality demands. With respect to lead times, the company sees potential for improvement by applyingTubeInspect. Mr Kuusisto explained why: “TubeInspect not only measures the pipes, but the machine also transfers the correctional values to our Herber bending machines. This is particularly useful when setting up a bending machine for a new tube. Since TubeInspect provides the correctional data within only a few seconds, we can set up the machines in a flash.” Mr Kuusisto also appreciates the possibility to measure free-form geometries with TubeInspect. “After having acquired Aicon’s measuring system, we are now the first ones in Finland who are able to do this. This gives us a true advantage in competition.”

Uwira is the first Finnish company to apply TubeInspect

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J anuary 2011

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