Metrology has changed and will continue to change

Optiscan non-contact dimensional inspection systems

For DataPixel, innovation and research allow them to find solutions before the problem arises.

DataPixel is manufacturer of OptiScan non-contact dimensional inspection systems and developer of very high-precision 3D vision technology. The company is the creator of M3Software, a digital metrology software that is revolutionising measurement processes.

“Metrology has changed and will continue to change,” says Toni Ventura, founder and CEO of Datapixel in Spain. The company has been designing, manufacturing and selling OptiScan 3D and quality control solutions for automotive and aeronautics components for 18 years. Find out more about the company’s history, importance of metrology and the solutions they provide.

What is Datapixel?

According to Toni, DataPixel optical scanners allow you to capture and control 3D dimensions and shapes of various parts such as metal stamping components that are part of the body, fuselage carbon fibre parts or aircraft wings, machined parts of engines, turbine blades or complex plastic parts.

The scanners are internationally accepted and enable manufacturing companies to perform dimensional inspections with micrometre accuracies. The company also manufactures optical sensors that allow the measurement of small parts with accuracies of nanometres for the most accurate systems.

Since when is Datapixel part of the Innovalia Group?

“Datapixel was born within the Innovalia Group and this provides Datapixel with a great technological, internationalisation and innovation capacity,” explains Toni.

Datapixel undertakes projects of a much greater dimension in technological complexity, through close collaboration with the other companies of the group, taking advantage of synergies between them. Membership in the Innovalia Group allows DataPixel to reach a much higher level of internationalisation, sharing international marketing resources with the rest of the companies, taking advantage of the presence in markets in both mature and emerging economies. In addition, the group provides DataPixel with a much higher level of innovation capacity, participating in R&D projects at European level, in cooperation with the Innovalia Association R&D unit.

He adds, “The combination of these three dimensions supposes a qualitative and quantitative leap for the competitiveness of DataPixel in an increasingly global market.”

How important is metrology in industry?

Toni says the deployment of metrology resources, methods and processes are key to the industry’s achievement of the levels of productivity, quality and efficiency required in today’s markets.

“It can improve what can be measured, and metrology is the discipline that brings together the knowledge and the implementation of this concept. Industrial metrology allows us to obtain accurate information and knowledge about industrial products and processes, so that we can control, improve and optimise them,” he adds.

Please clarify the Metrology 4.0 concept.

Toni explains the term Metrology 4.0 comes with Industry 4.0. Each industrial revolution has required the development of metrology tools and methods that have made it possible. Industry 1.0 emerged from the hand of empiricism and the scientific vision of reality, extending the use of mechanical instruments of metrology that allowed to obtain objective data of products and processes. Industry 2.0 meant the introduction of more advanced manufacturing processes such as mass production. In order to increase productivity, more sophisticated metering technologies were developed, allowing greater performance of manufacturing processes. Industry 3.0 was “The automation revolution” and the CMM measuring machine concept emerged as an automated element combining sensors, electronics and robotics. Finally, Industry 4.0 offers the jump to the digitisation and virtualisation of the manufacturing industry, through technologies such as digitisation. The combination of OptiScan and M3Software make this possible. The integration of these technologies with other digital systems leads us to talk about the digitisation of processes.

Now we talk about intelligent metrology, connected metrology and metrology in the cloud. Has traditional metrology changed?

“It has changed and will continue to change much more. We are now at the beginning of a radical change in the way of capturing, analysing and integrating the information of products and processes of industrial manufacturing. Metrology should be able to offer solutions increasingly integrated in the digital factory,” he highlights.

The transformation is being given thanks to information and communication technologies in all areas of human activity is also crucial for the industry. Metrology products and solutions must also be interconnectable, have a certain capacity for intelligent processing and have the capacity to store and process large volumes of data.

Toni emphasises the key element in this equation is the standardisation of digital components and exchange formats to ensure that any equipment is capable of interoperating with other equipment and systems of the company.

What solutions are provided from Datapixel?

“DataPixel is an innovative company in the field of digital metrology, high precision optical digitising, and in the integration of metrology systems in the digital industry,” he states.

The company was the first manufacturer in the world to introduce the concept of hybrid metrology, which is now in clear expansion, which consists of combining different contact sensor technologies and non-contact sensors in the same system in order to have the best information in every moment and with the maximum precision and productivity.

DataPixel and the Innovalia Group are the developers and marketers of the M3 Software metrology software, an open platform that integrates the functionalities of optical sensors, contact sensors, big data, Analytics, IoT and digital metrology into a reference product in the digital factory.

M3 is the first product on the market to connect fully integrated metrology systems in CNC machining centres and machine tools.

What news do you think the sector will bring in the coming years?

Toni reveals,” DataPixel will continue betting on innovation and developing products and solutions for the digital factory, both highly accurate optical digitising sensors, as well as software and systems for laboratory measurement, CNC machine measurement, production line measurement and digital metrology.”

“The company is the first metrology manufacturer to 100 percent integrate the international standard QIF (Quality Information Framework) to exchange metrological data, which will allow greater interoperability with manufacturing control systems in the future,” he adds.

Toni further says, “In the field of the digital factory, DataPixel and Innovalia are introducing new simulation systems, which allow to optimise the processes of measurement by mathematical algorithm before being implanted in the actual manufacture. All these new products and solutions are part of the M3 platform. Platform adopted by different clients at international level and that is assuming for a clear advantage in reducing costs and improving processes.”