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One element of that effort is more than three years of ongoing R&D; on a "hybrid" manufacturing process for tooling that involves both additive manufacturing—laser sintering of powdered metal—and high-speed machining to final dimensions. Some production tooling has already been built with different variants of this method. More immediately important to shortening the timeline for tool development is Octex's implementation of world-class metrology facilities at Omnia Scientific. The heart of that opera- tion is the CT scanner, an x-ray imaging device that "provides the most accurate resolution and is extremely fast," according to Thomas Schuler, director of Omnia. This machine costs between $500,000 and $750,000. Octex believes it was the first molder of its size to have such a system (see Apr. '16 Processor's Edge). According to Schuler, it can provide 50,000 measurements in 65-85% less time than conventional CMMs. Beyond that, it can visualize internal geometry nondestructively and can reveal internal porosity, weld lines, and glass-fiber distribution and orientation. Requiring no fixturing, entire assemblies can be measured and then separated or "exploded" in animated views. Schuler expects the CT scanner to add value to Octex's new micromolding business. That's because the machine registers 2 million voxels (3D pixels) per scan, regardless of the size of the part, which translates into much greater resolution on micro parts. "What's unusual about Omnia," Schuler adds, "is that it's a metrology business run by plastics processors. Anyone can report measurements, but they can't tell you why the measure- ments are the way they are." He cites the example of parts from a 32-cavity hot-runner system that was unbalanced. Omnia was able to measure all 32 parts and overlay each part on a CAD model to determine the vari- ances, and then place those parts on a CAD image of the mold to help understand how the runner system needed to be balanced. Two case histories illustrate how the CT scanner has helped Octex penetrate the medical molding business. In one case, resorb- able surgical implants were cracking, and the OEM spent three years unsuccessfully trying to find the root cause. "With the CT scanner, we solved it in two weeks," Wigton says. "It was a processing issue." In a second case, a biomedical storage medium required ability to withstand immersion in liquid nitrogen for up to 10 years while retaining a hermetic seal. The OEM could not find a way to make the product pass this test. According to Wigton, "We solved it with the help of the CT scanner, and now this is one of our biggest customers." Omnia Scientific's staff of fewer than half a dozen has other remarkable metrology resources. Two Instant Measuring Machines from Keyence Corp. of America use optical sensing and ring illu- mination to measure up to 99 critical dimensions in 3 sec with accuracy of ±2 μ. 3D microscopes are also used for production QC. Omnia is looking into inspection capabilities that even go beyond that of the CT scanner. One is transmission electron microscopy, to look for porosity in micro parts. Another is XRAD, which Hoskins describes as a hybrid of CT scanning and x-ray microscopy. It has the advantage of revealing surface morphology, unlike CT scanning alone. Fast and accurate measurements are only half the story: Omnia Scientific supports that ability with a super-fast, high-capacity IT infra- structure. This was Wigton's first project; he completely redesigned the company IT capability to acquire and store all the data from all the Octex operations and to provide data security. He installed a fiber-optic data superhighway to transfer data from all the plant's machines to a supercluster. The data are encrypted for storage on-site and backed up in the cloud to a redundant network of seven different data centers. Wigton says his network can handle transfers of up to 250 tera- bytes (1 TB = 1024 GB), which he claims is equivalent to the capacity of a national cell-phone carrier. Why so much capacity? One CT scan can generate up to 10 GB of data, and one mold might require scans of up to 32 parts. To illustrate what that means, Wigton says, "To put 10 GB on a flash drive takes 10 min. To download that data to a central computer takes another 10 min. Multiply that by 32. My system can do a direct transfer in 2 min per scan, with no USB drive." This central computer handles more than metrology data. It will be linked to the firm's IQMS production monitoring system and to process data from the injection-machine controls. "Every keystroke is monitored by the central computer," Wigton says. "And I can shut down anything in the plant from my phone in 30 sec, if necessary." Choice Tool & Mold's production area, seen from the engineering office. Right: Hoskins with Choice Tool's pride and joy, a five-axis hard-milling machine said to be unmatched for speed and accuracy. Future plans include a three-axis version and a robot loader, and ultimately another duplicate cell. 60 FEBRUARY 2018 Plastics Technology PTonline.com Octex Group On-Site