Kinkele manufactured the internal and external airbreaks for the A320 and the A380 with a size of approximately 8 to 3 meters. The ability to be able to do everything is Kinkeles strongest characteristic in comparison to other compa-nies. Kinkele has 350 customers in 25 industries and is a classic contract manufacturer. ԓWe make every-thing that others find too difficult, too complicated or are in too much of a rush to make, explains Edgar Fleckenstein, Quality Department Manager at Kinkele. At Kinkele no project is the same as another. KinkeleԴs main priority when choosing the new measurement system. The system needed to be as universal as possible. Finally Kinkele found exactly what they were looking for with the API Laser Trackers - a metrology product for industrial employment. The Laser Tracker 3 and the XD Laser 5/6D have been employed in Edgar Fleckenstein`s department since the middle of 2006. Six parameters manufactured in one measurement procedure Kinkele manufactured the internal and external airbreaks for the Airbus A320 and A380. These airbreaks were approximately 3 to 8 meters. The main task for quality assurance was parallelism and position measurements. Fleckensteins staff were already using the XD Laser 5/6D at the start of the project, in order to measure and exa- mine the machine. Contrary to conventional interferometers, which accomplish distance measurements by two line- ar shifted prisms, the XD Laser 5/6D is developed on single axles, so that measurement accuracy can be increased with parallel measurements and 6 parameters can be measured at one time.The XD Laser System measures axle angle-, slope -, and linearity. It is possible to save up to two thirds of time when using the XD Laser, immediately proving its ROI: Service machine standing time is very expensive and error probability increases the longer a measurement lasts. The equipment can compensate temperature variations via its integrated sensors. "If a measurement would last longer than one day, it would affect the accuracy", states Fle- ckenstein. > Press Release from Automated Precision Deutschland GmbH, O6,7, 68161 Mannheim, Germany Contact: Kay Wessin, Marketing, Tel.: +49 621 170 289 0, [email protected] size="-1">

Picture left: Measurement of a welded structure with mechanical treatment (basic frame for a construction machine crawler scraper) Picture right: API La-ser Tracker 3: With a weight of 8.5kg. Lighter than any competitive model A change of heart in the last minute In the beginning Kinkele was actually focusing on various systems from an API competitor. API has been researching and developing their measurement technology range since 1987 and are recognized as the technology leader. Up to recently API assigned licenses and did not have any systems on the market. For this reason API was recently...

Picture above: API XD Laser 5/6D: up to six parameters captured in one measure- ment procedure Manufactured vacuum chamber at Kinkele: a challenge with nearly 10 position changes. The Tracker 3 was also positioned within the chamber. well as the combination of the Laser Tracker and the XD Laser was finally the reason for the decision to purchase, as no other competitor could comply to these conditions.Kinkele invested 300,000 Euro into this measurement technology. A clear increase in output according to Flecken-stein, who already demonstrates that this will increase with progressive personnel...

Edgar Fleckenstein, Quality Department Manager at Kinkele (left) and Marc Keinert from API: The perfect partnership. The inspection room at Kinkele: Three measurement teams are trained on the Laser Tracker and the XD Laser. Great cooperation Kinkele GmbH & Co KG This is exactly what Kinkele has with API. If any questions or problems arise, Fleckenstein can rely on a 100 per cent availability from API via their hotline, which always provides a solution within 24 hours. Fleckenstein can only shake his head over the competition, who solely concentrate on one supplier, who has been weakly represented...