How to choose laser tracker services for Ontario fixture teams

To choose an on-site laser-tracker service for fixture acceptance in Ontario, give bidders the same engineer-approved coordinate definition, feature list, tolerances and reporting requirements. Require written agreement on how results will be accepted before booking.

Separate the quote requirements into:

• Required for your acceptance scope: the common datum and nominal coordinates, critical features, access plan, reference-recovery checks, separate as-found and as-left files, and an acceptance decision rule.
• Optional unless your engineer specifies otherwise: additional graphics, point clouds, CAD models and analysis beyond the agreed acceptance deliverables.

These are proposed commissioning requirements, not a published provider package or a mandated standard.

Check the service before discussing equipment

PFTS lists Canada, U.S.A. and worldwide coverage. [2] Onsite Metrology Canada’s About Us page describes service across Canada. [7] MW Site serves Ontario, including Toronto and the GTA. [6] PFTS describes on-site laser-tracker measurement of large parts across Canada, as well as the USA and worldwide. [2] Ask it to confirm the fixture-specific scope and acceptance deliverable in its quote.

Check the proposed measurement approach. Onsite Metrology Canada is located in Southwestern Ontario, brings portable metrology to customers’ facilities, offers alignment and dimensional inspection, and lists an AT-960 Laser Tracker and RA8 Measuring Arm. [5] Use those equipment names to open the access and tolerance discussion—not as proof the proposed job can meet your requirements.

Check relevant application experience. Hydro Tech lists offices in Sault Ste. Marie and Niagara Falls, Ontario, and describes metrology for hydroelectric assets, including alignment and dimensional verification. Its cited page does not define a complete service territory. [3] Ask whether it will attend your plant and how its experience applies to the fixture.

Keep adjacent services separate. SS Metrology Solutions/The Metrology Company’s cited page offers equipment and software rental, including technical support and training. [4] Orillia-based MW Site serves Ontario with terrestrial laser scanning and point-cloud services. [6] Neither offering should be treated as the on-site laser-tracker fixture-inspection service described here.

Give bidders one approved coordinate definition

Issue the same coordinate definition—not merely the same CAD model. Ask your engineer to identify the governing machine or plant coordinate system and specify whether tracker-local coordinates have any role in the acceptance record.

Complete and approve these inputs before quotes are finalised:

• Controlled design information: drawing and CAD revisions, units, and a nominal coordinate file identifying the features to be checked.
• Reference frame: datum hierarchy, origin and positive axis directions, tied to the governing machine or plant coordinates.
• Acceptance requirements: engineer-approved tolerances for each relevant feature and any thermal-reference requirements.
• Shared references: a common reference-feature list and consistent point identifiers, with revision control through mobilisation, adjustment and verification.

Require each bidder to describe its transformation or alignment method and show how reported coordinates will use the approved frame. Make engineer approval a condition of substituting datums or using an alternative fit.

Reporting capability is not a coordinate definition. Mobile Metrology offers nominal, actual, deviation and GD&T reporting; Hydro Tech offers comparison of as-built measurements against design models. Ask both providers to confirm your fixture’s datum, origin and axes; Mobile Metrology describes moving the tracker on recorded references (leapfrog). [1][3]

Ask each bidder to acknowledge the coordinate-definition revision in its quote so both commit to answering the same positional question.

Verify feature access and reference recovery

Ask how each acceptance feature will be reached while preserving the agreed coordinate frame. Mobile Metrology advertises a 130-foot radius, extended by moving the tracker using recorded references—a method it calls “leapfrogging”. [1] Ask Mobile Metrology to confirm its geographic service area, fixture-specific access plan and reference-recovery error limit. [1] Obtain written confirmation of Ontario attendance and the proposed measurement approach.

Do not treat reach as proof of access. Request a feature-by-feature response for the fixture’s holes, locating faces, nests and hidden features, rather than accepting equipment range as confirmation of coverage.

Send an annotated drawing or model identifying every acceptance feature, and ask the bidder to return:

• Access status: directly measurable, measurable through an agreed alternative method, or excluded, with an explanation of each exclusion.
• Proposed setup: tracker stations, reference-target locations, reflector or probe arrangements and offsets, plus a plan for obstructions and hidden features.
• Reference-recovery check: how the bidder will reconnect to the approved datum after tracker repositioning, which checks it will perform, and the recovery-error limit proposed for engineering approval.

Have your engineer approve alternative features, indirect methods and recovery limits before the visit. Specify how an inaccessible acceptance feature will be handled: resolve it through an approved method or record it as unresolved, rather than leaving its status implicit.

Specify as-found and as-left files

Require separate as-found files for the condition before adjustment and as-left files for the final measured condition. Carry access exclusions into the acceptance record.

Mobile Metrology lists customer-criteria inspection reports, graphics, lists, GD&T, nominals, actuals and deviations. [1] Hydro Tech offers dimensioned reports, as-built/design-model comparison and verification before, during and after maintenance. [3] Ask both providers to confirm the complete handoff below in writing, including separately labelled as-found and as-left coordinate files. [1][3]

Make the following part of the quote request:

• Separate datasets: matching feature IDs, nominal and measured X/Y/Z coordinates, deviations, applicable tolerances, status under the agreed decision rule, and documented exclusions.
• Usable coordinate files: agreed machine-readable formats, units, coordinate-frame identity, drawing/CAD revision and transformation details.
• Measurement context: timestamps, instrument identification, environmental metadata and adjustment history linked to the relevant records.
• Signed acceptance report: responsible signatory, inspected scope, unresolved results and uncertainty treatment, with file identifiers connecting the report to the coordinate datasets.
• Underlying records: agreed raw-observation delivery and retention requirements, including which records are retained, by whom and for how long.

Ask each bidder for a sample demonstrating the proposed file structure and report fields before accepting its reporting scope. Keep the coordinate datasets and their acceptance status central to the handoff; graphics can supplement them.

Clarify day rates, travel and repeat-visit costs

Ask bidders to price the complete acceptance scope, not simply time beside the fixture. Mobile Metrology publishes these charges in Canadian dollars: Professional Laser Tracker + Equipment at $2,000/day, overtime at $200/hour, and air-travel time at $600/day plus airplane and equipment transport. Fixed quotes are available by contacting the provider. [1]

The page also prints “1-1/2 Weekends”; request written clarification of that notation and how the charge is calculated. [1] Ask Mobile Metrology to confirm the effective date of the rates and provide a dated quotation with a validity period. [1]

Have each bidder answer these cost questions:

• What constitutes a day? Identify whether mobilisation, setup, datum establishment, adjustment support, reporting, coordinate-file preparation and demobilisation are included.
• What else is chargeable? Request the treatment of local travel, accommodation, taxes, waiting time, access delays and extra tracker stations.
• What triggers a return-visit charge? Distinguish added scope from correcting incomplete or non-conforming work, and agree the pricing basis for each.
• What terms govern changes? Request cancellation, rescheduling, insurance and responsibility-for-rework terms before booking.

Keep rental pricing separate. The Metrology Company/SS Metrology Solutions advertises daily, weekly and monthly rentals and a lowest-price guarantee, not a dollar quote for an operated fixture-inspection service. [4]

Agree how near-tolerance results will be decided

Set the acceptance rule before a reading lands close to the limit. Use engineer-approved plant tolerances, and do not equate equipment specifications or vendor performance claims with guaranteed job accuracy.

Request a job-specific uncertainty statement covering the measurement arrangement, environmental conditions, reference recovery and method used to reach critical features. Ask for its supporting explanation and proposed confidence level rather than inserting an assumed value. Ask Mobile Metrology, PFTS, Hydro Tech and Onsite Metrology Canada for a job-specific uncertainty budget and near-tolerance acceptance rule. [1][2][3][5]

Mobile Metrology says it takes part and assembly temperature, ambient temperature, humidity and atmospheric pressure into account. [1] Ask how those conditions will be recorded for this job. Request calibration-status and traceability evidence and agree repeatability checks as part of the measurement plan.

Have your engineer and supplier agree:

• How measurement uncertainty affects a pass, fail or held result.
• Whether a guard band applies and how it is defined.
• What triggers remeasurement and which procedure governs it.
• Who resolves a result that remains inconclusive.

Illustrative contract wording could read:

“If the result falls within the agreed uncertainty-related review zone, hold acceptance and follow the approved remeasurement and engineering-review procedure.”

Define the zone’s boundaries, the remeasurement procedure and final acceptance authority before work starts. The wording alone is not a decision rule.

Define what happens if the fixture moves

Agree a hold point after final adjustment and securing. Identify who authorises final verification, and make subsequent fixture movement a trigger for review before sign-off.

Put this acceptance question into the scope:

“If the fixture moves after alignment but before sign-off, which agreed references will recover the coordinate frame, which features must be remeasured, and which replacement as-left files and report will govern acceptance?”

Make the responsibilities explicit:

• Notification and authority: name who reports movement, authorises renewed measurement and approves additional costs.
• Reference recovery: require a check that reference targets remain valid, using the common coordinate definition and agreed access plan.
• Rechecking and records: identify features to remeasure, mark replaced files and reports as superseded, and identify the replacement as-left package governing sign-off.

Mobile Metrology’s recorded-reference repositioning method supports asking how the coordinate frame will be recovered; it is not a published post-movement acceptance rule. [1] Keep the movement triggers, remeasurement scope and cost responsibilities in the project agreement.

Choose on written commitments

Issue one revision-controlled request-for-quotation package containing the coordinate definition, nominal file, tolerances, access list, reference-recovery plan, handoff requirements, acceptance controls and commercial scope.

Require each bidder to mark every requirement compliant, qualified or excluded, explain exceptions, and return a relevant sample report and proposed measurement plan. Resolve unapproved datum substitutions, inaccessible critical features, missing coordinate deliverables and undefined near-limit decisions before award.

Choose on the supplier’s written commitment to answer the agreed acceptance question, not the instrument specification alone. A concise scope statement is:

“Using coordinate definition [revision], report the specified features against nominal file [revision] and engineer-approved tolerances, with separately labelled as-found/as-left data and disposition under decision rule [revision].”

References

1. Laser Tracker inspection and Alignment Services Canada. (mobilemetrology.com)
2. Laser Tracker Measurement for Canada & USA | Alignment | PFTS (lasertracker.ca)
3. Metrology & Dimensional Inspection | Hydro Tech (hydrotech-inc.ca)
4. FARO Rentals Ontario | LEICA Laser Tracker Rentals Canada (themetrologycompany.com)
5. Portable Metrology Services Ontario | Onsite Metrology Canada (onsitemetrologycanada.com)
6. 3D Laser Scanning & Point Cloud Services in Ontario | MW Site (mwsite.ca)
7. About Us | Onsite Metrology CA (onsitemetrologycanada.com)