Speed lead: Renishaw says its tools allow measurement data to be captured faster without loss of accuracy

Metrology is booming for precision engineering businesses. A small company in this field, Optical Metrology Services, won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for the second time last year – recognition of its exponential growth over the past decade driven by the oil and gas export market, and of the development of some outstanding British technology.

When chief executive Denise Smiles joined OMS in Stansted, nine years ago, she was its third employee. The firm now has more than 40 staff – including three apprentices – and picked up the most recent award in the innovation category for its SmartFit service, a system for managing pipe preparation and fit-up in readiness for welding prior to pipe laying. 

Used in the oil and gas industries, the technology ensures accurate fitment of pipes before welding and laying in trenches, helping to prevent environmentally damaging leaks. OMS has developed bespoke laser measuring equipment and methodologies with supporting software. The service reduces costs through faster pipe laying, and improves quality by eliminating mismatched pipe ends, says OMS. The company won the first Queen’s Award for a pipe end dimensioning service that takes more than 2,000 measurements in less than 10 seconds, using lasers.

OMS works with oil and gas majors such as Shell, Chevron and BP, on projects all over the world – particularly those involving deep-water drilling. Pipes involved in deep-water projects are subject to huge pressures in terms of depth and current. “Oil companies need to obtain the best fit-up they can,” says Smiles. The company’s technology is being used in schemes in the Gulf of Mexico, Australia, and Malaysia.

Closer to home, metrology services from OMS are also used in the North Sea industry, where the drop-off in the oil price over the last year has raised alarm over the possibility of exploiting reserves economically in the future. Trade body Oil & Gas UK welcomed measures in last month’s budget to ease the fiscal burden on the industry, but believes that what will ultimately preserve the sector is technology. 

For its part, OMS has developed systems for inspecting welds on pipelines where there is a high proportion of corrosive sour gas, and others for laser measuring welds on the inside of pipes to great depths.
“I think we are pretty much the only company in the world that can look at welds a kilometre down the pipe,” says Smiles. If a weld is suspected of being faulty, it has to be cut out and replaced. “We can tell if a weld will pass or fail.”

She agrees that technology can help the North Sea industry survive. “It’s about continuous improvement and process improvement – new technology, processes and ideas. It means new partnerships to deal with the challenges and uncertainties. Those challenges are going to get bigger and harder. We need to see innovation and imagination.”

Another company in the sector, market leader Renishaw, reported revenue for the first six months of its financial year, which ended in December, of more than £213 million, an increase of 42%. Operating profit was £62.3 million, compared with £27.8m for the comparable period the previous year.

The company says its customers want more efficient manufacturing processes with greater traceability, and the capacity to report on these issues using powerful software to capture more data – so-called Big Data. These requirements have prompted enquiries for upgrades to coordinate measuring machines involving five-axis machine tools, using the Renishaw Revo scanning head and PH20 touch-trigger system. 

The growth of the metrology business is being driven by aerospace and oil and gas, says Renishaw. “Both these products allow measurement data to be captured faster without loss of accuracy, therefore increasing throughput time.” Meanwhile, the National Composites Centre, part of the national high-value manufacturing Catapult, is recognising the need to provide businesses with access to leading measurement technology through seminars and open days. Seminars on metrology will be held at the Nuclear AMRC in Rotherham this month, and at Warwick Manufacturing Group in June. 

Brian Holliday, managing director of the Siemens Digital Factory, and a member of the high-value manufacturing Catapult, says investment in metrology is essential if high value-added manufacturing is to thrive. “We can no longer rely on pure mechanical dimensions in measurements based on Cartesian coordinates – a simple machine-shop approach – to remain competitive,” he says. The Catapult centre is planning to adopt the ISO10012 measurement management standard, set to provide commonality in dimensional measurement, and will provide a guide to implementation of the standard for manufacturers. “This will be a great help to businesses that do not have the resource to adopt ISO9001, or as a first step to building a quality system,” he says. 

The UK could build on existing strengths, adds Holliday. “Britain has an edge in metrology and the potential to have a greater edge. But the issue is investment.” He believes the country is in a lead position to develop non-contact technologies for metrology, including optical laser scanning, X-ray computed tomography and sonar techniques to measure components where contact, or material invasion, is not desirable. 

“We need more integration of measurement that considers the electrical, physical and long-term properties of materials, such as creep and fatigue. Additionally, the measurement of complex geometries requires fast and flexible contactless methods, using lasers and advanced software,” he says. 

Metrology improves sustainability because parts attain better wear characteristics, and can be designed and assembled better, says Holliday. It also enables remanufacture by capturing geometric data. He highlights what he calls a “peerless” British metrology research network, including the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Advanced Metrology at the University of Huddersfield, and other resources at the universities of Cranfield, Cambridge and Heriot-Watt. 

Smiles of OMS says that the company, while not reliant on North Sea oil and gas, is searching out new markets as it adjusts to a lower global oil price. 

She is looking at land pipe assembly as a new market, as well as work in aerospace, where the company’s technology has been used to assess wing box manufacture. It is also being used in operational nuclear reactors to measure corrosion. Crawlers are being developed to take laser inspection systems around corners to inspect welds. OMS is also working on civil engineering projects, such as inspection of water pipes at London’s Holborn Viaduct. 

Just as elsewhere in the engineering industry, skills are a problem for metrology companies. OMS enjoys a high level of staff retention, with a core of long-serving employees. It is recognising the need to employ youngsters through the apprenticeship scheme. Smiles says: “You expose them to this complicated world. But that’s what entices them to stay in. We have a fast-track recognition scheme. Some of these engineers will go on to run parts of the business.”

OMS staff fly all over the world to provide services and carry products to customers in oil and gas. As with many in manufacturing, Smiles supports the expansion of airport capacity to boost exports. Of her local airport, she says: “If Stansted were to expand, I would be delighted. I’m probably one of the few locals not signing petitions against expansion.”

There are quirkier aspects to the success story at OMS. For example, its technology was used to help prove Gillette’s claim that its razors provide the “closest shave man can get” when the company faced a legal challenge from a rival in the US. 

However, Smiles warns that traditional engineering skills in the UK could deteriorate as an older generation moves into retirement. “Precision engineering in the UK is a dwindling art, at least on the manufacturing side,” she says.