Left to right: Casimir Sienkiewicz – Principal/Founder, Wade Stalnaker – Quality Assurance Management
Authored by: Landon Wiser, Director of Strategic Growth Precision machining does not end when a part leaves the machine. The finished component still needs to be measured, documented, and verified against its requirements.
That is why Caztek has invested in a new advanced metrology lab while achieving ISO 9001 and AS9100 certification. Together, these milestones strengthen the systems behind our manufacturing work and expand our ability to inspect complex components with speed and accuracy.
The new Caztek Quality Lab supports programs where dimensional accuracy, traceability, repeatability, and process control are essential. It gives our team better tools to confirm that critical features meet specification before a part leaves our facility.
Quality Is Built into the Process
Inspection is important, but quality cannot be added to a component after machining is complete. It begins much earlier.
Material selection, engineering decisions, machining strategy, documentation, process controls, and inspection all contribute to the final result. Each step affects whether a part performs as intended and whether that performance can be repeated across future builds.
As Caztek founder Caz Sienkiewicz explains:
“Quality isn’t something you inspect into a part at the end of the process. It’s built into every decision—from engineering and machining to inspection and documentation.”
Our ISO 9001 and AS9100 certifications validate the quality management systems supporting that work. The new lab builds on those systems by expanding our measurement capabilities and helping us respond to increasingly complex customer requirements.
Advanced Dimensional Inspection
At the center of the lab is a Hexagon GLOBAL S 7.10.7 Scan+ A+/T+ Coordinate Measuring Machine, or CMM.
The system significantly expands our ability to perform accurate dimensional inspection on complex manufactured components. Its advanced scanning technology supports faster, more comprehensive measurement while helping our team verify that critical dimensions conform to customer specifications.
This capability becomes increasingly important as part geometries grow more complex and tolerances become tighter. A component may contain numerous features that influence fit, alignment, movement, sealing, or overall system performance. The inspection process needs to evaluate those features with the same level of discipline used to manufacture them. By increasing measurement capability and inspection throughput, the Quality Lab helps our team move efficiently without compromising confidence in the results.
Building the Capability on a Shortened Timeline
Bringing the new CMM into the facility required more than selecting the right equipment. It also required close coordination among the teams involved in the purchase, planning, and implementation.
Caztek worked with Chris Carlson, Sales Engineer at Productivity Quality Incorporated (PQI), and Alex Fleagle, Sales Engineer at Hexagon, to move the project forward on a shortened timeline. Chris supported Caztek through PQI, while Alex worked alongside the channel team to help align the equipment with our inspection goals.
Their responsiveness and technical support helped Caztek establish the new capability efficiently. It reflects the same kind of working relationship we value with our own customers: clear communication, shared goals, and a willingness to solve problems together.
The result is more than a new piece of equipment. It is a stronger inspection capability built around the needs of the parts and programs our customers bring to us.
ISO 9001 and AS9100 Certification
Caztek’s achievement of ISO 9001 and AS9100 certification reflects a broader commitment to documented, repeatable, and continuously improving quality systems. ISO 9001 establishes a structured foundation for quality management and consistent process execution. AS9100 adds the rigorous requirements expected in aerospace and other high-consequence manufacturing environments.
These certifications are more than credentials. They support the daily systems used to manage work, maintain documentation, monitor processes, and verify that customer requirements are understood and followed. Combined with the lab’s expanded metrology capabilities, these systems position Caztek to support projects that require close control over manufacturing quality, inspection, and traceability.
What the Caztek Quality Lab Means for Customers
For customers, this investment provides practical benefits throughout the manufacturing process:
Greater confidence in dimensional accuracy: Advanced measurement capabilities help verify that critical part features meet specification.
Inspection of complex geometries: The CMM supports components that require comprehensive measurement across numerous features.
Improved consistency and traceability: Documented quality systems help create repeatable processes and clear inspection records.
Faster inspection workflows: Expanded scanning and measurement capabilities improve inspection throughput and support production efficiency.
Support for demanding requirements: The combined quality system and lab capabilities help Caztek serve programs where precision and process control are essential.
A commitment to continuous improvement: The lab is part of an ongoing effort to strengthen the way we manufacture, measure, document, and deliver parts.
These benefits are especially important in aerospace, medical, defense, industrial automation, and commercial manufacturing applications. In these industries, a dimensional discrepancy can affect assembly, testing, performance, or downstream production.
Reliable inspection helps identify those issues early and provides customers with stronger confidence in the parts they receive.
Precision Inspection for Increasingly Complex Parts
Modern products continue to place more demands on individual components. Designs are becoming more compact, integrated, and technically complex. At the same time, manufacturers are being asked to maintain tighter tolerances, clearer documentation, and more consistent results.
That makes precision inspection just as important as precision machining.
A machine tool may produce an intricate component, but inspection provides the evidence that the component matches its requirements. The two processes work together. Manufacturing creates the part; metrology confirms the result.
The new Quality Lab allows Caztek to strengthen that connection. Our machinists, engineers, and quality team can work from a shared understanding of the design requirements, the manufacturing process, and the inspection results. That feedback supports better decisions today while creating useful information for future production.
Confidence in Every Part
Customers bring Caztek difficult parts because the details matter. The geometry may be complex. The tolerances may be tight. The documentation requirements may be extensive. In many cases, the component also plays an important role in a larger system.
Our responsibility is to manage those requirements with discipline from the beginning of the project through final inspection. ISO 9001 and AS9100 certification establish a strong framework for that work. The new Quality Lab gives our team the equipment needed to measure increasingly demanding components efficiently and accurately.
Together, these investments strengthen the confidence behind every part that leaves our facility.