Data from the quality function joins design and production figures to improve efficiencies
There’s an old saying in the accuracy business: To measure is to know. The 200+ exhibitors in the Quality Assurance Pavilion at IMTS 2022 are promising fresh looks at traditional approaches to determining quality, such as gages, probes, and micrometers, to entirely new cloud-based digital platforms delivering data-based fresh perspectives on what determines quality in manufacturing.
Earlier this year, Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division announced Nexus, an open platform for smart manufacturing. Nexus will enable real-time data sharing between different design, simulation, and production applications, including inspection and quality assurance.
Formerly siloed and separate applications will form workflows, combining technologies and perspectives to develop unique solutions to engineering and manufacturing problems—from concept to delivery. It will empower cross-functional teams to leverage fragmented digital data by improving visibility and connectivity, gaining unprecedented insight to bring their ideas to life faster, and produce higher-quality results, the company stated.
Nexus is capable of leveraging Hexagon data sources from across its vast portfolio; connecting hundreds of Hexagon design and engineering, production, and metrology software tools and unlocking new insights from connected machines. Additionally, cloud-native visualizations and data-management solutions such as HxGN Metrology Reporting and MaterialCenter have been built as cloud-native applications, and will be connected through Nexus.
“Our customers are managing increased complexity in the market, which is demanding faster innovation than ever, Parth Joshi, chief product and technology officer for Hexagon’s Manufacturing Intelligence division, said. “Siloed tools, rigid systems, and inaccessible data are increasingly ill-suited to the manufacturing industry’s needs and pressures.”
The company’s vision for Nexus is to “enhance the products our hundreds of thousands of customers have come to know and love with additional capabilities, powered by the cloud, AI and machine learning, real-time collaboration, and advanced visualization,” Joshi continued. “Nexus will allow manufacturers to build more agile and resilient processes so they can respond positively to change and take advantage of new opportunities, create faster pathways to products, and develop increasingly autonomous workflows—realizing the full potential of quality-assured smart and sustainable manufacturing.” You can find Hexagon at Booth 135202.
On the production floor, automation solutions are making themselves seen and heard in quality assurance. Joshua Old, engineering manager at Capture 3D, a Zeiss Company (Santa Ana, Calif.), said about 60 percent of customer projects include automation, such as the ATOS ScanBox BPS (batch processing system). This requires little operator involvement—the system can scan parts over an eight- or 12-hour overnight shift and deliver inspection reports and digital twins in the morning.
Digital twins with accurate 3D scan data can be used to build virtual assemblies for stringent form, fit, and function analysis prior to production. “Many of our customers also connect their 3D metrology solutions to their manufacturing platforms to create a more complete ecosystem for true Industrial Internet of Things initiatives,” Old added. Visit Capture 3D at Booth 135527.
Data collection can also take place on machining centers with blue-light scanners or touch probes, but the data is commonly seen as too dirty for anything more than the simplest cut-measure-cut routines. Applied Automation Technologies (Booth 135760) of Rochester, Mich., begs to differ.
The company describes its CAPPSNC software as CAD-based online and offline dimensional measurement software for both CMM and CNC controllers. This allows customers to program their machine tools as CMMs, providing real-time feedback for machine-tool adjustments as parts are being made.
Ray Karadayi, Applied Automation Technologies president and CEO asserted, “CAPPSNC software is truly Industry 4.0 smart manufacturing technology because it is using metrology information throughout the manufacturing process for adaptive control.”
Chris Affer, AAT3D senior application engineer added, “The software provides easy and precise part setup and machine axis diagnostics. This pre-process approach allows the customer to set specific work and tool offsets prior to machining. In-process adaptive manufacturing occurs when CAPPSNC automatically makes machining program corrections from real-time, in-process feedback through on-machine probing. Finally, in the post-process, detailed quality reports are created for the machine with SPC analysis and metrology data. CAPPSNC supports sensor interfaces like CNC touch probes, scanning contact probes, non-contact laser scanners, and non-contact CCD cameras. It provides dynamic feedback for errors due to part offsets, errors due to part fixturing, errors due to tool wear, and errors due to thermal effects. Ultimately, it can provide all necessary advanced CMM reporting.”
Affer further explained, “CAPPSNC is integrating a wide variety of CNC machines for on-machine inspection and smart manufacturing needs, including machining centers, milling and turning machines, turret lathes, large-scale 3D printing and additive manufacturing, waterjet and laser cutting machines, as well as robotic applications.”
L.S. Starrett Co. (Athol, Mass.), an established gage and metrology system supplier, also recognizes increasing the speed, volume, and accuracy of measurement and inspection data collection is critical. Said Emerson Leme, vice president of industrial products, “In terms of acquiring/ collecting precision measurement data for quality-control purposes, the clearest path to these advantages comes from wireless and mobile retrieval technology.”
To support this path, Starrett will unveil the DataSure 4.0 Wireless Data Collection System at its IMTS booth (135044) with demonstrations of automated wireless measurement data capture and transmission from its full range of handheld wireless/electronic gages. “DataSure 4.0 is a key contributor to automated, smart factories and substantially increases the accuracy and speed of data collection. The system is fast and easy to use, as well as versatile and customizable. Also, DataSure 4.0 is scalable with high data security capable of operating over unrestricted distances,” said Leme.
In a study on data collection throughput and accuracy, Starrett reports taking measurements with a micrometer, hand-writing the results and manually entering the data. This resulted in 37 time/motion elements, 28.9 seconds per part, and 62 entry errors. “Measuring and entering the data directly with the DataSure wireless data collection system, we only had 17 time/motion elements, 6.6 seconds per part with no entry errors.”
In another example, an engine-builder customer implemented Starrett wireless indicators and DataSure 4.0, saving 8-10 seconds on every measurement taken, which translates to more than seven hours of labor savings daily over the thousands of measurements that are made. They also eliminated incorrect data, and notably reduced scrap and re-work, according to the company.
Another major metrology supplier, Mahr Inc. (Booth 135810) of Providence, R.I., is introducing a new generation of electronic digital comparators, the Millimess 2000 W(i) and 2001 W(i). The new digital comparators combine reliable operation with maximum precision. Using a unique inductive measuring system, measurements are more precise than ever with added probe linearization—whether it’s a static or dynamic measurement task, the company said.
The principle of inductive length measuring probes allow for extreme sensitivity of the measuring system, thus providing resolution of 0.1µm/5µ". Colored LED signals visually indicate an additional clear measured value classification (good, reject, rework or warning limit) according to stored tolerance and warning limit values.
With practical touch-control panels, the new digital comparators offer maximum measuring reliability even in harsh workshop environments. A light tap on the touchscreen is sufficient to safely operate the digital comparators with most commercially available gloves. This eliminates the possibility of measurement errors by accidental adjustment or deformation of the comparator. The full-surface glass display also offers protection against liquids and dirt, which cannot penetrate the sealed housing.
The need for quality and inspection data will never go away, but the speed, volume, accuracy, and integration of that data is changing and improving manufacturing substantially. The Quality Assurance Pavilion at IMTS 2022 is full of examples.
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