Industry 4.0: inline metrology on the up

Related Vendors

Jongen Werkzeugtechnik GmbH

BORIDE Engineered Abrasives

Renishaw plc

M & H Inprocess messtechnik GmbH

Werkzeugmaschinenlabor WZL RWTH Aachen

more less

“If a manufacturer takes advice from metrological experts like us at an early stage, he will get a machine tool that not only gives more accurate measurements but also produces more precisely machined parts,” Kimmelmann adds. “Robots, by the way, can also be used as dedicated measuring machines. We utilise robots in conjunction with cameras and laser scanners for digitising unknown contours of large, complex components, for example.”

Laser-based metrology has proved its worth

In recent years, laser-based measuring systems have proved their worth in Aachen, since they exert only a slight influence on the manufacturing process. Other processes, such as inclination scales, are also options, but have to be permanently installed in the machine. “We opt almost entirely for light-based technologies, rooted in modern-day coordinate measuring equipment,” says Peterek. “Optics are going to increasingly displace tactile processes, since you obtain significantly more information in a shorter time.” The possibilities opened up by optical metrology in interaction with the industrial sector are demonstrated by a robot cell for assembling truck drivers’ cabs. To quote Kimmelmann: “An external, mobile coordinate measuring system on an optical basis acquires the location of the truck cab on an assembly line, and the entire surroundings in six degrees of freedom, so that the robot “knows” how and where, for example, it fits a windscreen to an accuracy of 100 to 200 µm.”

Despite these developments, the external measuring room is not passé. “I am confident that it will continue to have its justified place, since some things cannot be measured with the requisite precision, even with specialised machine tools,” Peterek notes. “For complex tasks with stringent requirements for accuracy, the enclosed measuring room with temperature compensation will accordingly still be a viable option – in approval processes, for example.”

It’s not only because of the multitudinous questions themed around production metrology that the two experts think a Quality Area at the Metav 2016 is a good idea. The group leader interprets it as a significant upgrading in the perceived importance of his specialism, since “we basically have the appropriate metrological equipment for machine tools, robotics, and a vast majority of automation solutions”. Prof. Dr Robert Schmitt, who heads the Faculty of Production Metrology and Quality Management, and is Director of the German Society for Quality (DGQ) sees the Quality Area not least as an opportunity “to break down the functional-organisational walls between the production and metrological specialisms”.

February 2016: a good moment for new trade fair approaches

“The moment is well chosen for breaking new ground with the Metav in February 2016 – a few months after the EMO in Milan,” comments Ulrich Löhr, Managing Director of M&H Inprocess Messtechnik GmbH from Waldburg. “We are confident that the Quality Area will prove highly invigorating, and together with our partners Edgecam and Work NC will under the logo of Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence be showcasing production and metrology solutions directly on the machine tool.”

(ID:43789153)