When it comes down to it choosing the right vendor to handle your dimensional inspection is a task that should be handled with care. Whether you are trying to reverse engineer a product manufactured by one of your competitors or if you simply want to move a new product from the prototype to production it is vitally important that you get accurate results from your inspection lest your final product deviate from the original. We have all seen what happens when something is manufactured with inferior parts, and we know what will happen to the business that produces such shoddy products. This is why it is so important for a company to ensure that its products meet high quality standards if it is to stay in business.
There is a diverse range of various machines and techniques used in dimensional inspection for quality control, from small hand-held tools to the sometimes massive coordinate measurement machines, each of which requires its own special knowledge to use. Hand held tools are, obviously, less desirable in most industrial settings due to the high level of human error. Coordinated measurement machines have been standard for many years, but they require frequent recalibration to make sure that they do not deviate from the original model and as such they can be somewhat slow by modern standards. New laser scanners are becoming more commonplace in recent years due to their speed and convenience, but like their predecessors they still cannot penetrate a solid object to scan intricate parts beneath the surface.
No matter which option you choose be sure that your inspection is handled by a top of the line company with a sterling reputation for both customer service and quality of the final product. Make sure to research your vendor and ensure that they meet the standards your business needs to accomplish the task.