Do the machinists in your shop play a lead role in parts inspection?
I was reading up on measurement, metrology tools and inspections when I came across an r/Machinists conversation on Reddit and went down a wormhole. One line really stuck with me: “You can’t inspect quality into parts.”
That jibes with what many experts tell us about increasing demands on CNC machinists on the shop floor: “Tolerances are getting tighter and tighter, and so operators today are being asked to make pretty precise measurements on the shop floor,” Mahr’s George Schuetz told us. “People used to send parts to a central inspection area, but often now the operator of the big CNC machine is asked to be the quality control person too.”
Shops focused on high-end precision machining have to find the right balance. But what is that balance? Where does machining quality measurement end and inspection begin?