A Paradigm Shift for Inspection: Complementing Traditional CMM with DSSP Innovation

Abstract

Digital shape sampling and processing – the convergence of 3D scanning with the digital processing of coordinate points, as the Society of Manufacturing Engineers defined it in a 2005 Bluebook – is often presented as a technology that displaces the coordinate measuring machine. This paper argues the opposite: that DSSP is a potentially disruptive innovation which complements traditional inspection without being disruptive to it. It surveys dimensional measurement from cut-and-try through plus-and-minus tolerances, the Taylor principle, Y14.5 and the CMM, sets out where hard gages, calipers and trigger-probe or scanning CMMs each stop being economical, and shows through a Schneider Electric case study how combining methodologies raises productivity and quality together. The download contains both the conference presentation and the white paper behind it.