CAItech Aligns with Yorke Precision

San Jose, CA, May 13, 2004 - CAItech and Yorke Precision (Campbell, CA) have announced a collaboration to develop fast and accurate 3D inspection machines. CAItech brings its proven 3D inspection software and laser-based 3D inspection machine.  Yorke brings a strong capability in precision machining.  They plan to combine these skills with confocal optics sensors made by Optimet Metrology, Inc. (Danvers, MA).  The resulting machine is expected to be as accurate as the industry standard Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM), but 10 times faster.

The Optimet Conoline sensor measures 16,000 range points per second, each point accurate to +/- 10 microns.  However, its sensing beam must be directed very accurately under computer control to get accurate dimensions from a part being scanned.  Yorke's expertise in precision machining assures that the beam is pointing accurately.  "While many errors can be compensated in software, having a dimensionally accurate machine to begin with makes it easier for the software developers," said Doug Yorke, President of Yorke Precision.

CAItech, a Silicon Valley manufacturer of 3D scanning and inspection machines, makes one of the few 3D machines that can accurately scan all sides of a part.  The part is fixtured to a table that can rotate 360 degrees during a scan.  The table itself is machined accurate to +/-2 microns using Yorke's expertise in machining wafer chucks for Silicon Valley industry.  The resulting set of scanned surface points, called the "datacloud", includes points from the top surface as well as all sides.

Most competing 3D scanning machines take data only from above the part, giving poor resolution of features on the part's sides.  "If you only scan the top of a part, then you can never get most the most elementary part dimensions," says CAItech President Dr. Shawn Buckley.  "Even a simple dimension such as the width or the length of a part can not be resolved accurately," he adds.

Buckley was enthusiastic about the collaboration, "We've worked with other vendors in the past and found that they could not hold the required tolerances for many of our precision motion stages. We expect our work with Yorke to bring many innovative products".

Computer Aided Inspection Technologies, Inc. is a privately held California corporation manufacturing next-generation automated inspection equipment. Established in 1997, CAItech is located in San Jose, CA in the heart of California's Silicon Valley electronics industry.
CAItech can be reached at (408) 226-0642, or on the web at www.caitech.com .