Willman Industries Inc. is a full-service jobbing foundry offering design, pattern making, heat-treating and machining; specializing in no bake and green sand molding producing both grey and iron ductile castings.
Big and bold on the home page of its web site www.willmanind.com the company proclaims—"Quality Castings That Meet Your Requirements."
According to Randy Parker, Willman's Quality Manager, part of that quality assurance can be attributed to an Artec Eva 3D Scanner purchased from Exact Metrology back in late July last summer. A handheld and targetless [requiring no reference markers or calibration] scanner, the Eva can be compared to a video camera which captures in 3D. Below you can see just how easy the Eva is to operate as a Willman Industries employee uses it to scan a casting.

Parker was already familiar with the benefits of 3D Scanners as he was looking to upgrade from an older Laser Scanner and Faro Arm. Having worked with Exact Metrology at his previous employer, he knew he'd get the "Exact" piece of equipment he needed with the help of the Exact Metrology team.
"Technical expertise" was the advantage that sold him on working with Exact Metrology again. "Efficiency working with large castings up to 30,000 pounds" was the benefit that sold him on the Eva.
Since its purchase, Parker says the Eva has been in use practically every single day in some capacity or another and estimates it has been instrumental in QA on approximately 50 jobs so far.
Parker says the Eva has "worked out well beyond expectations."
"We've made numerous improvements to our process with it. Our dimensional control has improved not just from measuring the castings but from checking multiple process inputs with the Eva."
"We've greatly expanded the primary use we bought it for as well, to include problem solving, tooling analysis, pattern & mold scanning, and reverse engineering."
Parker knew the Eva would help supply layout castings more rapidly but is amazed at the actual pace. Some tasks are accomplished in 75 percent less time and he cited some castings that historically would have stretched over a period of seven to 10 days now being done in six to 10 hours.
He refers to the Eva as "crazy efficient." Adding, "The rate at which you can capture data is fantastic."
PolyWorks is the software of choice to process the data.
"Without a doubt the Eva has saved our company money," confirms Parker. 'We definitely promote it to customers as a valuable tool that will enable us to meet their castings' requirements."
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