Rich,
Are you not the same person that was asking for this back in March of this year? If you are, then were our responses of no help to you? Quite a few people responded to this same question placed in the "Misc." conference. Their replies remain (near the bottom of that conference) but perhaps you lost track of them. As I stated back then, I was not aware of any such verification. That is until the reply from Mr. Roos. In case you lost them, I have attached both our replies for you. Please let us know how you are doing with this regard and if need be I'll dig a little deeper. Good luck!
Regards,
Geoff
Sr. CMM Programmer
Lapeer Metal Stamping
LMS Metrology Lab
Lapeer, MI
Topic: Measurement Software Verification (5 of 6), Read 101 times
Conf: Misc.
From: Geoff P (geoff@lapeermetal.com)
Date: Thursday, March 29, 2001 09:25 AM
Rich,
Like the responses of others, I've not heard of any verification for a particular type of software. Sounds as though your auditor is really grasping at straws. Did you actually receive a major for this? I mean come on, where do we draw the line? QS9000 Standards are to assure adherence to an international quality system right? Well then, in short that system is in place to assure we meet specific customer demands via following documented procedures. As long as your software comes from a reputable ISO certified company, in collaboration with them you are in fact following procedure. If your machine is calibrated and repeatable in measuring product that meets customer requirements then I would tell your auditor that it is all too apparent that your software is operating correctly. We have a Zeiss CMM and on their web site you will find the following: "In addition to being ISO 9001 certified, we are now also certified to ISO 10012. This insures that our company adheres to a Quality System that is recognized internationally. All of the test and measuring equipment used in our calibration process are directly traceable to N.I.S.T." I can assure you they have covered the software at Zeiss and this is what I would tell our auditor before I spent one penny on the verification of such. May I suggest a new auditor? We use NSF-ISR perhaps you might want to give them a call (888) NSF-9000 and good luck to you.
Regards,
Geoff
Sr. CMM Programmer
Lapeer Metal Stamping
LMS Metrology Lab
Lapeer, MI
Topic: Measurement Software Verification (6 of 6), Read 105 times
Conf: Misc.
From: Juergen Roos (jroos@de.bnsmc.com)
Date: Friday, March 30, 2001 07:34 AM
Interesting to see how people trust their equipment!
Verification of CMM-software is actually an old story. More than 10 years ago the German national institute PTB (Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt) came up with test algorithms for CMM software. They provide data sets to the software makers, who have to use this data to calculate elements (circles, planes etc.) as well as other features with their software.
PTB then compares the makers results with their reference.
As far as I remember, from the first 10 or so applicants for the PTB software certificate all but 2 failed. One of the 2 who passed the test was QUINDOS.
You as a CMM customer don't have to do anything except to ask your CMM-software supplier to provide you such a certificate.
Best regards
Juergen Roos