Developing together with Expocentre’s trade shows
About ten years ago Master-Service, a company based in St. Petersburg, started exhibiting at Expocentre’s metalworking trade fairs. It offered quite simple products, namely measurement tools. Today it is Master-Service Metrology Group, which comprises several companies specialized in different areas. They operate in Russia and the CIS countries and offer dozens of brands, among them globally known, e.g. FARO, Jenoptik, Alicona, Metrology Group, OGP, etc. Today over 700 systems installed by Master-Service Metrology Group operate at the enterprises of motor, aircraft, engineering, machine-tool and other industries countrywide. The company’s competitive strength is not just equipment or software offered but turnkey solutions.
At the Technoforum exhibition Master-Service Metrology Group showcased optical systems for general supervision of components and roughness measurement equipment made by German company Jenoptic. It also displayed optical systems, made by Austrian company Alicona, measuring not just roughness but also form of articles.
The supplier uses word “innovative” describing Alicona system because it is new to the Russian market. Using this equipment one can see material microstructure, i.e. roughness and surface waviness and also measure large components, for example, a turbine blade. The system scans the surface in the real light and enables us to see all failures on the surface of the product such as embedment, dents, scratches, cracks, and bends. As the exhibitors told at the stand, in Europe such systems “fit” well in various R&D centres, where surface roughness is to be measured; the system is also used in the motor industry where small components of injection systems are to be measured. Applicability varies greatly.
The main thing is that Alicona measurement systems not just monitor final products but allow inspecting components at each manufacturing stage. These sensor systems can be fixed right on the machine. We can programme CNC to measure this or that component. If a component does not conform to the given parameters, it is rejected as defective; if it conforms to the parameters, it moves to another stage of processing operation. Alicona has developments meant for the machine-tool industry, in particular, a special device for 3D measurement of cutting tools, such as blades, milling cutters, etc.