Rheem turns the heat up on Quality

Rheem began making drums in Australia in 1937 and manufactured its first water heater in Australia at Waterloo, an inner Sydney suburb, in 1939.

Rheem Australia Pty Ltd is headquartered with its manufacturing operations in the Sydney suburb of Rydalmere with additional manufacturing operations located in Melbourne and Perth.

Rheem proudly manufactures gas & electric storage, heat pump and solar water heaters for domestic, commercial & large scale project applications in Australia. Designed in Australia for the harshest Australian conditions with a strong reliance on innovation involving the need for state of the art technology.

In mid-2012, with the desire to maintain the highest quality standards, one of Rheems Process Improvement Engineers was looking for a way to improve their manufacturing process. After viewing the variety of measurement solutions that Hi-Tech Metrology offers to industry at a recent Austech exhibition they invited Hi-Tech Metrology to come and evaluate their current methods of inspection.

Technologies originally considered included probing and laser scanning options on both fixed and portable measurement platforms with the final recomendation being a ROMER Absolute 7325SE portable arm. The 7325SE provides the flexibitlity of a 7 axes arm with the ability to add a laser scanning head in the future

'In the end we decided on the ROMER 7325SE probing series arm and PolyWorks Inspector Probing' said Rheem's Engineer 'as this was the most practical solution given we can utilise the Romer arm throughout our workshop with it's portability. Another significant factor in the evaluation was the versatility of the PolyWorks inspection software which is crucial given the large variety of products we will be inspecting.'

After taking receipt of the ROMER arm Hi-Tech Metrology provided several days of detailed training enabling a variety of Rheem manufacturing Engineers to inspect their various water heaters effectively and efficiently. At the conclusion of each measurement the captured data is stored away enabling tight control of the manufacturing process. 'Statistical Process Control is key to our success' Rheem says 'and with the implementation of the Romer Arm and PolyWorks software we are confident that our high quality water heaters will not only continue to meet but exceed the expectations of our valued customers'