Adoption of ROMER Articulated Arm Broadens Business Horizons for Smaller Companies

The acquisition of a measurement instrument represents an important investment for small and medium-sized companies. The questions are numerous: Which product to buy? Which supplier to rely on? What technology corresponds to the company's needs? Is the investment really worth the effort? SMG Confrère, a company specialized in cutting, embossing and metal sheet work, has not only quickly found a product meeting these requirements, it also started immediately profiting from having it. The product is a ROMER articulated arm.

A measurement column bought second-hand, a few caliper rulers as well as measuring rods and set squares: such was the conventional stock of measuring instruments at SMG Confrère until 2004. When the measurement column falls and breaks, the initial impulse is to have it replaced. After analyzing the replacement costs, the available options and the customer's needs, the limits of the measurement column were quickly reached. SMG Confrère's measurement requirements were indeed increasingly demanding, be it in the building sector or in the fields of agricultural, heavy trucking or fire-fighting equipment.

Specialized in steel-metal, cutting, swaging and mechanic-soldering from small and large parts, SMG Confrère has to issue a detailed measurement data sheet for each different part. That's why the measurement instrument has to give satisfactory answers to even the most demanding clients, for example by producing measurements of imaginary planes.

Since measurement columns could not meet these needs, Mr. Godefroy, Quality Manager at SMG Confrère, needed to turn toward other metrology tools. By taking into account the required type of inspection before the validation of all initial samples, it became apparent that selecting an articulated arm as a fast, mobile and convenient instrument would also offer the best price-to-performance ratio. Compared to a measurement column, an articulated arm is a leap forward in price but also a wise investment that meets the customers' current needs. . . . .