Two Ely-based companies have joined forces to shorten production timescales for a range of high performance industrial sensors.

Ely Standard: Innomech has worked with local company Michell Instruments to develop a new workstation that will enable the company shorten its production timescales, improve quality and expand capacity for one of its leading product ranges.Innomech has worked with local company Michell Instruments to develop a new workstation that will enable the company shorten its production timescales, improve quality and expand capacity for one of its leading product ranges. (Image: Archant)

The team work approach has been taken to help meet a fast-growing international demand.

Automation consultancy GB Innomech at Witchford has designed and developed a new semi-automated workstation to help a local manufacturer improve the manufacturing efficiency for one of its leading ranges of high precision industrial sensors.

Mike Selwood, operations manager at Michell Instruments, said: “Innomech has specifically developed this new workstation to handle our existing Easidew product range but also with the flexibility so that it can be easily adapted to accommodate new products in development.

“The new system will speed up our assembly timescales, improve the process of manufacture in terms of quality and repeatability, and has the option to be integrated into more fully automated production processes in the future if required.”

Ely Standard: Innomech has worked with local company Michell Instruments to develop a new workstation that will enable the company shorten its production timescales, improve quality and expand capacity for one of its leading product ranges.Innomech has worked with local company Michell Instruments to develop a new workstation that will enable the company shorten its production timescales, improve quality and expand capacity for one of its leading product ranges. (Image: Archant)

Easidew sensors are routinely used for moisture measurement in gases and liquids across a broad range of sectors including industrial processing, medical gases, and compressed natural gas fuelling stations.

Innomech has designed the easy-to-use workstation to replace a previously repetitive and time-consuming manual task of screwing a polymer or stainless steel guard component onto the body of a sensor housing.

The new system requires almost no operator training and is based on an Atlas Copco torque driver which tightens the two components together following a defined torque profile.

The system can immediately identify and warn its operator of any cross-threaded components or if the guard is incorrectly seated at the end of the cycle.