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Coming to (Golf) Grips with Global Manufacturing Standards
 The
Company:
The corporation is
a diversified industrial manufacturer and global leader in a large range
of product holdings. The golf products division is the world’s largest
manufacturer of golf grips and has been for over 50 years, with
manufacturing, sales and distribution facilities in seven countries. The
brand, with its wide variety of sizes, designs, and features, is the
number one choice in grips among tour and recreational players, as well
as golf club manufacturers.
The Challenge
The global R & D
engineering manager was tasked with directing design standardization
across the golf products division. Because of the company’s size and
global reach, pressure was mounting to make their tooling methods and
designs universally usable at all of their many manufacturing sites
worldwide. They wanted to consolidate the design and development
process, and at the same time, archive their historical design data that
had been created in many different formats, for both the tooling and the
saleable products.
The scale of the
entire project was enormous; the engineering manager needed to find a
starting point that would lead to a universal solution. He started with
reverse engineering a prototype rubber grip to get data into a new
standard format suitable for further Pro E parametric CAD development.
The prototype grip was made up of complex geometry with many unique
surface features. Since it was a flexible conceptual part, it had
imperfections such as asymmetries which couldn’t be detected visually
and a parting line mismatch.
 The
company had originally discovered GKS Inspection Services through a web
search for a previous project, when they were looking to do some reverse
engineering work with legacy products. At the time the company was
working with a Stratasys rapid prototyping system. Stratasys is a
frequent collaborator with Laser Design / GKS Inspection Services; they
highly recommended GKS to the engineering manager for the current
endeavor.
The Solution
The manager made
contact with Larry Carlberg, GKS Service Bureau Manager in the Minnesota
office. GKS Inspection Services is a division of Laser Design, Inc., the
leading supplier of ultra-precise, 3D laser scanning systems and
services since 1987.
Carlberg’s
previous experience working with several of this company’s projects
allowed him to immediately devise a plan for scanning the grip. “Larry
gave us the heads up about the typical problems that arise in what we
were trying to do,” explained the lead project engineer. After he
provided a rubber prototype of the intricately detailed grip, Carlberg
quickly responded with a proposal on how to best scan it, and how to
begin creating the archive of products with a common format.
 With
over 25 years in the business, GKS metrologists have experience with all
kinds of projects. Carlberg explained the approach he would take to
address the issues of the small details, curved surfaces, and
imperfections in the prototype. “We used the RPS-120 laser probe on the
DS-2030 Laser Design Surveyor system because the intricate patterns on
the golf grip could not be captured without the high density of
coordinates,” commented Carlberg.
 Because
the laser scanning system projects a line of laser light onto surfaces
while cameras continuously triangulate the changing distance and profile
of the laser line as it sweeps along, the problems of missing data on an
irregularly shaped surface is eliminated. The system measures fine
details and captures complex freeform geometry so that the object can be
exactly replicated. Laser scanners quickly measure articles, picking up
tens of thousands of points per second, and generating huge numbers of
data coordinates without the need for templates or fixtures.
“This laser setup
included a rotary stage on the DS-2030 machine, allowing for scanning in
multiple positions very quickly and accurately,” continued Carlberg.
“For this particular project, we utilized a combination of laser
scanning and conventional measurement techniques for the small details,
hundreds of tiny plus-sign patterns on the grip. We inserted gauge pins
into the various slots and grooves on the grip. This method provides us
very accurate information to supplement the laser scan data. By
blending measuring techniques, we provided our modelers with all the
tools necessary to create exact models representing the geometry of the
part.”
 Given
that the part was a prototype, it had imperfections such as a mismatched
parting line. Knowing that the desired result in the final product was a
perfect parting line, GKS’s experienced modelers solved the problem by
blending the data in those areas to create a smooth curved surface.
Adding to the
complexity of the scan setup was the fact that the rubber prototype was
flexible. That meant that it could distort to a different shape when it
was repositioned for additional scans. “We solved the flexing issue by
inserting a steel rod that very nearly matched the center shaft into the
prototype part, like a golf club shaft. This rod gave the part the
essential rigidity to prevent distortion of the true geometry,” said
Carlberg.
The Results
“Larry Carlberg
was extremely responsive and gave us very good feedback about what we
needed to do to make the scanning process successful,” commented the
lead project engineer. “With his many years of experience, and having
completed several of our projects previously, he knew what we needed
even before we did, and supplied that as a matter of course. He pointed
out the asymmetrical and imperfectly matched halves of the scan data and
asked if we wanted them corrected to the ideal model. He took the time
to give us guidelines on how to avoid these types of issues and how to
deal with them. He knew exactly what corrections were needed and
provided us with the best possible scan data, very detailed and precise,
and very quickly.”
This golf grip
project is early in the development process, with an expected launch
date in late 2007. Engineers are working with the data not only to
perfect the grip, but also with forethought to how they will work with
and archive product data in the future. They need to create parametric
CAD models as well as make the necessary changes and product updates to
the legacy products in Pro-E to standardize their design and development
process worldwide. “Working with GKS has been a learning process about
what we can do and can’t do and what we really need for data,” concluded
the project engineer. “GKS has the knowledge to help us in the process
and provide the outstanding results we need to create our innovative,
leading-edge products.”
About GKS
GKS Inspection
Services has been a leading provider of dimensional inspection, 3D laser
scanning and terrestrial scanning services for over
25 years. The company’s Plymouth, MI lab (Detroit metro area) is
accredited by the A2LA for Mechanical Testing and Calibration and
features numerous CMM’s,
vision systems, 3D laser scanners, surface analyzers and other
inspection equipment. GKS also has U.S. offices in Minneapolis and
Seattle and international locations in India,
Korea, China, Taiwan and the Netherlands. The company’s metrologists and
engineers are experienced in the automotive, defense, electronics and
many other manufacturing industries.
More Information
For additional
information about how GKS Inspection Services can improve your
manufactured product, save you money and decrease your development time,
call Larry
Carlberg at 952-252-3432 or send email to
measure@gks.com
or visit GKS
Inspection Services’ web site at
http://www.gks.com.
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