Hexagon Revs Up Quality Control at Motorcycle Maker

Prestige motorcycle manufacturer Royal Enfield has boosted productivity and improved quality control checks thanks to a Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence ROMER portable measuring arm.

Engineers are using the equipment for a wide range of scanning and inspection tasks at its new research and design facility in Leicestershire.

The three-metre arm's capabilities have impressed the chassis development team as it allows them to fully inspect and scan some motorcycles in a single exercise without the need to move and re-position the kit. For other motorcycles, leapfrogging using the arm and Polyworks software is quick and easy.

Inspection data is not only used to verify prototype motorcycles in relation to their CAD intent, but also check off-line production tolerance and build quality, explained Chris Hunt, chassis development project engineer.

"The ROMER arm has helped us to improve accuracy, reduce user error and save time. It is very quick and extremely user-friendly. Hexagon's training and technical support services are very good and staff are always on hand to guide us through any problems and new challenges," he added.

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Dave King, Royal Enfield's motorcycle accessories quality assurance manager,  favoured the ROMER arm over other competitor models mainly because of its calibration feature.

"We required a portable measuring arm for scanning prototype parts to confirm accuracy and benchmark our products for design development so the calibration feature was a key point for me.

"The ROMER arm's calibration bar and process are particularly beneficial to our operations as a lot of uncertainty on the measuring system is removed," he commented.

Royal Enfield is now set to purchase the same equipment used at the Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground facility for its technology centre in India. Future plans may also include the addition of some CMM-based systems for achieving higher accuracy on a range of small engine parts.

The ROMER portable measuring arm range will be among the products on show at Hexagon's stand at Advanced Engineering, NEC Birmingham, from November 1-2.