Romer Absolute Arm proves to be a key development tool for Kerfab

Nestled in the Victorian country town of Kerang is the family owned business of Kerfab established in 1993 to produce a diverse range of attachments for materials handling equipment. Over the years Kerfab have kept pace with both market and industry sector demands by adding an extensive range of state-of-the-art products including attachments to suit wheel loaders, agricultural front-end loaders and skid steers. In addition to Kerfabs standard range, they are equipped and able to design and manufacture equipment and attachments to suit any specific requirements.

For many years Kerfab used traditional measurement tools such as tape measures, vernier calipers and micrometers to perform both quality control and reverse engineering functions. According to Stuart Thomas, Engineering Manager for Kerfab, obtaining reliable data in a timely fashion proved to be a difficult task which was compounded by the fact that these functions were not only carried out within our manufacturing facility but onsite more often than not in remote locations throughout Australia.

To alleviate the need for conventional measurement Kerfab made the decision to implement 3D measuring technology therefore embarking on the journey of finding the best solution and supplier to facilitate this change. Through extensive investigations Kerfab found the Romer Absolute 7325SI probing and scanning arm coupled with PolyWorks Modeler to be the solution that fulfilled this requirement. Stuart Thomas states that it was imperative that the supplier had the local support and extensive technical knowledge to ensure that not only the implementation of the new technology was seamless but ongoing support was readily available - "Hi-Tech Metrology proved to be the only company that could provide us with this, not only was the purchasing process professional but the training and after sales support have proven to be been exemplary".

Since implementing the Romer measuring arm and PolyWorks software Kerfab have been able to design and manufacture many projects with no need to perform any reworking; parts just fit perfectly every time. Stuart stated that prior to using the arm it would take them a full eight hours to measure a vehicles mounting locations and tyre clearances and on some occasions they may have to go back to gather further information. This is all done now in less than three hours with far more reliable data captured first time and no need for return visits.

The implementation of this technology has dramatically improved the efficiency of our business stated Keith Chirnside Kerfabs Managing Director. "We are excited about the future as we foresee the Romer arm enabling us to increase the versatility throughout our manufacturing processes far beyond that which we previously thought possible, an outcome that our business and customers will continually benefit from".