Monster DEA Gantry CMM Reincarnated by Xspect Solutions for Department of Defense

When SES recently leased 500,000 square feet of the old 1,200,000 square feet Dunlop tire manufacturing facility in Huntsville, AL they needed a big CMM& and Xspect Solutions found one for them.

Xspect Solutions is the world’s largest supplier of rebuilt and remanufactured CMMs, and has extensive expertise in the area of large CMMs.  So when SES, a Huntsville, Alabama based Department of Defense ISO  9001:2000, AS 9100:2004 Rev B and FAA approved 145 Repair Station manufacturing supplier went to the Internet to find someone to provide them with a large gantry-type CMM, Xspect Solutions stood out as the best potential source.

Millard Jernigan, vice president for special projects for the Huntsville operations of Science and Engineering Services, explains, “We have recently secured a significant number of new hardware and services contracts from the U.S. Department of Defense and other related OEM manufacturers that required more manufacturing floor space to accommodate programs involving military equipment like tank components (turrets) and helicopters. The helicopter work includes modification, upgrade, rebuild and painting of all types of Army helicopters. In Huntsville, Alabama we have had a 61,000 square feet manufacturing facility for the past 12 years, but we recently leased 500,000 square feet of the old 1,200,000 square feet Dunlop Tire manufacturing facility and have completely refurbished this space to handle some of our new programs. This space is completely heated and air-conditioned, newly painted floor to ceiling and with lighting of 100+ foot candles at bench level. We have installed large milling machines and a large waterjet cutting machine with a 13ft x 13ft bed capable of cutting up to 8" armor plate. As part of this new capital investment program, we required a large CMM to provide the high quality level of inspection we were going to need for checking large airframes. We looked on the Internet and discovered Xspect Solutions, a company that not only sold new CMMs but had the capability to find us a pre-owned CMM… I think Xspect calls them Xperienced machines that could meet our needs at a significant savings. Keith Mills, Xspect Solution’s president explained to us that in some cases older CMM frames were originally manufactured to more exacting standards than some of the newer machines, and with the right level of remanufacture can effectively operate for 15 to 20 more years. We asked Xspect Solutions to show us what they could do.”

Mills says “It wasn’t very difficult to find a pre-owned gantry CMM of the size that SES required, because there are only six of them here in the U.S. We were able to purchase an older DEA Lambda 5509 gantry machine that was originally owned by Caterpillar.  This is a big CMM. It stands 300" high with a work envelope that includes X travel of 320", Y travel of 128" and Z travel of 100". Apart from going thoroughly through all the mechanics of the machine, we rescaled it, replaced all of the original cables, retrofitted it with a new Wenzel CNC controller and  upgraded the software to OpenDMIS. When we were finished, SES had a like-new Xsperienced gantry CMM with a savings of nearly 70% compared to the cost of a new machine. Since that time, Xspect Solutions has purchased two other similar large pre-owned gantry CMMs that we have in stock awaiting new customer commitments.”

Jernigan adds, “Xspect Solutions provided us with a turnkey program for this project. We consulted with them on the specifications for the isolation pad that was required and the modifications to the building that we needed. We actually had to raise the roof of the building 11ft to get the CMM in, and ultimately provided a new ceiling for the CMM area that was 11ft higher than what was originally there. We currently have our CMM technicians being trained on using the OpenDMIS software and creating the inspection programs we now need. We’ve used CMMs for a number of years, but nothing like the size of this gantry machine. But this capability now allows us to accurately inspect products like 9 foot diameter tank turrets and helicopter frames. The installation of this CMM provides SES the additional opportunity of offering quality measurement services to other commercial or government organizations. The SES contact information can be found at www.ses-i.com.”