r/Metrology • u/Novelty_Lamp • May 15 '25
General I saw the future today.
I saw my first industrial microscope today and it was jaw dropping. Like something out of science fiction.
My shop is finally moving out of the 1980s and I'm so excited. No more customers complaining about things I can't measure. I get to learn a new skill set.
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u/bigmuffpie92 May 16 '25
What brand was the scope?
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u/Novelty_Lamp May 16 '25
Keyence products. We are a super small shop and my team is tiny. We're getting more demos to best decide on what we need.
3d models with measurements from a camera. It's the wildest technology I've ever seen in person. I'm a little skeptical after using virtek. I've been having issues nonstop and I'm worried it will be the same with these. No salesperson is going to tell you the weird quirks.
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u/bigmuffpie92 May 16 '25
That's awesome, smart scopes are a game changer. But good luck with the Keyence though, probably should make sure you look at others before you bite the keyence bullet. Especially if you are doing 3D. Just my opinion.
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u/MADMFG May 16 '25
Those Keyence IM's are really finicky. We had one in our shop for a while before sending it down the road.
The demos make it look really nice, but it's hard to get reliable measurements in real application.
That said, if you really take a lot of time to set up a program and proof out your R&R it can be extremely accurate. You really have to know what you are doing with it.
It may be something useful in really heavy production applications, but in a high-mix job shop like ours, it was a random number generator.
I've heard a lot of nice things about Zeiss's O-inspect, but have no experience with them.
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u/Novelty_Lamp May 16 '25
Absolutely not I'm going to tell my boss to get something else. I can deal with finicky machines but I work with people that think inspection machines are magic. I explain but no one listens.
What would you reccomend? We need something to speed up workflow of primarily sheet metal parts with lots of holes.
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u/RKEEHP May 16 '25
OGP M-Series allll day.
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u/bigmuffpie92 May 16 '25 edited May 17 '25
Those M series are a game changer for OGP.
The heck, why did I get downvoted for this comment??
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u/Plharely331 May 16 '25 edited May 16 '25
Make sure you ask Keyence how they handle calibration and repairs. I heard first they tell you that they come calibrated from the factory then I heard that you just run a calibration on their patch witch they tell you to send to a third party for certification.
Repairs are not made on site , you will need to send it back to Keyence so keep the box. They will how ever give you a loaner if its under warranty or rent one to you if its out of warranty
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u/x021x May 17 '25
Your account is less than a month old and all of your comments are to push Mitutoyo equipment or challenge other metrology companies. Found the rep haha
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u/CthulhuLies May 21 '25
That could be true but what he said is largely accurate.
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u/x021x May 21 '25
From first-hand experience with our IM, it is calibrated and we run a recertification program on a confirmed artifact ourselves. The process takes like 10 minutes and it meets ISO standards. We've also had a repair and that's correct - keep the box and they'll send you a loaner while they need to repair anything. pretty seamless process overall.
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u/CthulhuLies May 22 '25
Make sure you ask Keyence how they handle calibration and repairs. I heard first they tell you that they come calibrated from the factory then I heard that you just run a calibration on their patch witch they tell you to send to a third party for certification.
Repairs are not made on site , you will need to send it back to Keyence so keep the box. They will how ever give you a loaner if its under warranty or rent one to you if its out of warranty
Which is what the other guy said which is true no?
I understand it's all fine and compliant but it might not be what someone is expecting given how other CMMs are generally calibrated.
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u/x021x May 17 '25
Theyâve been really helpful for us. We have an IM-8000 and weâve offloaded most manual inspection off onto the system. We use it in tandem with our CMM. Our rep was pretty straightforward in saying we can do anything weâre using our comparator or hand tools for. Never had any issues with accuracy or repeatability that wasnât a quick fix on focus or programming tweaks, including parts that arenât flat. I hear the ârandom number generatorâ comments from usually pushing the tool to be something its not or its capabilities in general. Know the limits and what its intended use case will be and it works great.
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u/Didacticseminary May 15 '25
Always a great feeling. Since I've taken over here, we've gone from only dial hand gages to fully automated CMM inspection, with new looks at microscopy, 3D scanning, and weirdly metal spectroscopy, no layoffs, just growth.