Mectron Engineering adds to their competitive position through technology expansion
“Mectron continues to enjoy great successes with the support provided by the Great Lakes TAAC and looks forward to continuing our working relationship.”
– Mark Hanna, President & CEO
Background
Mectron Inspection Systems specializes in building high-speed inspection equipment for precision turned parts. In business since 1968, this Saline, Michigan based firm’s proprietary technologies provide customers with 100% inspection of critical characteristics to insure only defect free parts pass to the next step of production. Today the company’s inspection systems are found in applications that include ammunition, automotive, medical, and aerospace.
Mectron entered the program in the fall of 2019, and soon decided to embark on a project to improve the inspection capability of its Surface Qualifier (SQ) product line.
Approach
As part of the GLTAAC process, Mectron decided to use a portion of their TAAF co-funding to help pay the cost of a software upgrade for the firm’s SQ-7500 inspection machine. Mectron chose to re-engage with the consultant who originally provided the machine software to speed development of the new programming (GLTAAC clients often identify their own consultant, but can also use the assistance of GLTAAC staff to search for the right resource). GLTAAC implemented a three-way contract to co-fund the consultant’s fees and, in a matter of days, the project was off to the races.
The Surface Qualifier is Mectron’s visual ammunition inspection machine. The SQ-7500 features high speed GPU image processing. This system is designed to detect dents, scratches, draw marks, splits, folds, primer/no primer, head stamps, markings and discoloration.
Results
The successful launch of the new software has improved the SQ-7500’s inspection ability by an order of magnitude. The increased capability has greatly expanded the firm’s business in ammunition inspection and is adding another proprietary technology to the Mectron’s intellectual property portfolio.
