Muffett Gears can trace its origins back over 100 years. Remaining in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, the town it was established in, the business has grown into what is now a world-class manufacturer of precision gears and related components.
The company is now based in a 3,500m², high-tech production facility that, due to a policy of continued investment, is equipped with a range of state-of-the-art CNC turning, grinding, milling and specialist gear cutting machine tools.
In addition to continuingly updating its equipment and given the demanding nature of the business’ large domestic and overseas customer base, the management of Muffett Gears makes regular investments in quality control equipment. The company’s most recent addition to its quality department is a Crysta-Apex S9106 CNC Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM) purchased from Mitutoyo UK.
Muffett Gears director, Mark Jagelman says: “Our business continues to grow and to develop new markets and we now supply customers not only with precision gears and gearboxes, but also with a much wider range of engineering services, including electro/mechanical assemblies. As a result of our continuing company development, to more accurately reflect our much expanded range of activities, in 2021 we will change our trading name to Muffett Engineering Solutions.
“We hold a range of globally recognised accreditations and we administer a comprehensive quality management system. Our skilled staff adhere to the specified levels of precision demanded by our customers and follow all stipulated procedures. As we increasingly manufacture for export, we can also adapt our precision gear engineering to meet international standards.”
He continues: “The production of precision gears and associated components requires high levels of precision and the most exacting quality standards to be observed throughout all stages of production and assembly. With this in mind, we perform exhaustive in-process checks, then prior to despatch, thorough final inspection routines are undertaken.
“Many of these routines are performed on a CMM, although, we recently decided to replace our existing model for a range of reasons. For instance, the machine needed an upgrade that was due to cost approximately £50,000. In addition, we thought its running costs, including training, services and calibration were becoming exorbitant.”
“After investigating various options, a successful demonstration of a Crysta-Apex S9106 CNC CMM at Mitutoyo UK’s showroom convinced won our vote,” Mr Jagelman recalls. “As well as being precise, it is also fast in operation – essential for keeping up with the high volumes of work passing through our quality control department.
“It also helped that the Crysta-Apex has an X,Y,Z measuring volume of 900 x 1,000 x 600mm, ideal for the size of components and assemblies that we manufacture. In addition to measuring large, one-off parts, because of the CMM’s generous capacity, it is also able to inspect multiple smaller components in automated CNC, mass-measurement routines.
“When making key equipment purchases, we always take into account the levels of aftersales support provided by each potential vendor. It helped our decision that, in addition to extolling the virtues of the company’s own Mitutoyo CMM, a major customer of ours spoke highly of the services provided by Mitutoyo.
“Our customer’s endorsement has proven correct; we enjoyed a trouble-free installation and our quality control personnel have received first-class training from Mitutoyo UK. Mitutoyo’s staff also generated a number of part programs that the new CMM to be put into immediate use. If we need any help, Mitutoyo’s telephone technical support staff are always on-hand to provide a quick solution.
The new CMM’s ability to accurately and rapidly inspect large batches of components has further improved the efficiency of Muffett’s quality control department. Inspection staff are now able to load the CMMs bed with multiple components, quickly recall the relevant part program and instigate a fully automated inspection procedure. On completion, a detailed inspection report related to each component can then be generated.
The Crysta-Apex S9160 CNC CMM is solidly constructed from lightweight materials and offers excellent motion stability and impressive levels of precision. Besides being ideal for use in temperature controlled inspection departments, the CMM’s innovative temperature correction function allows it to perform accurate measuring routines in less than perfect situations such as within production environments. As well as point-to-point measurement, Crysta-Apex S series CMMs are able to perform both contact and non-contact scanning functions.
Crysta-Apex CMMs use MCosmos, a feature rich, easy to use analysis software that interprets measurement results in the timely manner so essential for keeping up with today’s fast-paced production.
Mitutoyo
www.mitutoyo.co.uk
Muffett Gears
www.muffettgears.co.uk
AUTHOR
Dave Tudor
Editorial Director
