Saving 70-80% control time

Sambo Shindo, located in the heart of the technology district in the north of Bangkok, Thailand, is a manufacturer of copper tube air-conditioner components. First established as F&S (Thailand) Co., Ltd in September 1994, the company is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi-Shindoh Co., Ltd, the leading copper and brass products manufacturer in Japan.  Increasing and ceaseless efforts toward performance improvement and innovation are driving them to becoming the number one copper material manufacturer in Asia.

A couple of years ago, Sambo Shindo (Thailand) Co., Ltd upgraded its business system to match recognised international standards. This goal is in line with the group policy of continuous development and the provision of high-quality products, with the intent of ensuring maximum customer satisfaction. To achieve this, the 700 employees successfully passed the stringent ISO standards requirements and certifications.

The company attaches high value to the Japanese concept of 5S, focussing on efficiency and effectiveness as well as standardisation. Along these lines, Sambo Shindo also follows a company policy throughout their production processes that focuses on accuracy and quality in order to ensure a complete customer satisfaction.

“We previously used standard instruments such as height gauges or vernier calipers for standard checks, along with jigs for inspection of complex work pieces,” said Sompan Chaiyoo, responsible for company quality control. “But we had some issues with quality control lead-time in the production line, and the adjustment of the machine took too long.”

As their parent company in Japan had already successfully implemented Hexagon instruments in their production workflow, Sambo Shindo contacted Hexagon for a solution. The AICON TubeInspect P8 machine, with BendingStudio software, was soon installed and the staff successfully trained.

“We appreciated the local service and expertise of the highly professional Hexagon Thailand engineers. The cooperation was always very good and the communication easy,” continues Sompran Chaiyoo. “Having an inspection machine with higher accuracy than customer requests – we are speaking here of tolerances down to a couple of hundred microns – is a big advantage. We are very satisfied with this acquisition.”

The AICON TubeInspect P8 is the perfect match for the copper tube manufacturer. Equipped with eight high resolution cameras, TubeInspect P8 is suitable for tubes and wires with diameters from 1 to 125 millimetres and allows for optimum 3D inspection of objects of up to one metre in length. The machine is designed to optimise production processes, for example in the setup of bending machines, which can contribute significantly to saving time and costs.

“TubeInspect’s state-of-the-art technology helped us to reduce inspection time by 70 to 80 percent compared to previous inspection times. More than that, the “easy-to adjust” machine calculates the corrections automatically and in a very fast and exact way. In the past, we had to calculate the differences by ourselves. The time savings here are huge, not only in measuring time but in working time in general.”

Sambo Shindo wants to further develop the full usage of their TubeInspect and are in the process of evaluating the possibility of multiplying the solution closer to the CNC machines in their Bangkok manufacturing facility.

“We would immediately recommend the TubeInspect measuring machine. It is really satisfying in terms of inspection and helps to adjust programming for CNC machines in just a short time. This is exactly the result for which we hoped.”  Sompan Chaiyoo, Senior Engineer