Brown & Sharpe DEA Partners with Ford in the AMAZON Project.Business/Technology Editors NORTH KINGSTOWN North Kingstown (kĭng`stən, kĭngz`toun'), town (1990 pop. 23,786), Washington co., S central R.I., on Narragansett Bay; inc. as Kings Towne 1674, divided into North Kingstown and South Kingstown 1723. , RI--Brown & Sharpe DEA DEA - Data Encryption Algorithm has been selected by Ford Brazil as technological partner for their AMAZON project. The AMAZON project involves building a new manufacturing facility in Camacari-Bahia, Brazil for the production of the Ford B platform (Fiesta). The facility is scheduled to be operational by August 2001. As a part of the project, Ford will invest in a major distributed shop floor inspection system to check the dimensions of sheet metal components, such as body panels, body-in-white assemblies, and sub-assemblies. The turnkey See turnkey system. installation, for which Ford Brazil has planned to invest more than $7 million, includes five horizontal arm Brown & Sharpe DEA VENTO high speed, high accuracy direct computer control (DCC (1) (Direct Cable Connection) A Windows 95/98 feature that allows PCs to be cabled together for data transfer. DCC actually sets up a network connection between the two machines. ) coordinate measuring machines configured con·fig·ure tr.v. con·fig·ured, con·fig·ur·ing, con·fig·ures To design, arrange, set up, or shape with a view to specific applications or uses: in a highly rugged version for shop floor inspection applications. Among the technical advances included on the VENTOs supplied to Ford are sophisticated self-cleaning devices designed to prevent airborne shop contaminants, such as dust and oil, from affecting machine performance. Two of these CMMs, a 6-meter-long (X-Axis) single-arm machine to be installed in the stamping plant, and a dual-arm machine of the same length in the welding welding, process for joining separate pieces of metal in a continuous metallic bond. Cold-pressure welding is accomplished by the application of high pressure at room temperature; forge welding (forging) is done by means of hammering, with the addition of heat. department, will be used to inspect a variety of sheet metal panel sizes and shapes. The other Brown & Sharpe DEA CMMs will be integrated into a robotized welding line developed by COMAU, another major Ford partner, for process control measurements. One of these machines, a dual-arm, 6-meter-long (X-Axis) CMM (Capability Maturity Model) A process developed by SEI in 1986 to help improve, over time, the application of an organization's supporting software technologies. , will provide in-line inspection of the complete car underbody. A second machine, a 9-meter (X-Axis) single-arm machine, will check the dimensions of side frames, and a third machine, a dual-arm, 6-meter (X-Axis) configuration, will be used to inspect the complete body. The sixth machine, a dual-arm 12-meter (X-Axis) VENTO, will be installed in an air-conditioned room for the dimensional verification of production tooling. Brown & Sharpe DEA, a world leader in three-dimensional inspection equipment for the automotive industry The automotive industry is the industry involved in the design, development, manufacture, marketing, and sale of motor vehicles. In 2006, more than 69 million motor vehicles, including cars and commercial vehicles were produced worldwide. , is the major supplier of advanced CMM systems for the dimensional control of all sheet metal components of the car body, including body panels, subassemblies, as well as the full car body. Brown & Sharpe, 200 Frenchtown Road, North Kingstown, RI 02852-1700, 1-800-766-4673, FAX (401) 886-2552, www.brownandsharpe.com. |
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