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At the recent Control 2018, Nikon Metrology’s focus on inspection automation sharpens. As the growth of Industry 4.0 accelerates, quality control needs to keep pace with these latest evolutions. Digital, automated and connected inspection enables complete process control from design through to manufacture - defined by the term ‘Quality 4.0’.
Industry 4.0 is the digitization of the whole design to manufacturing process. It aims to increase competitiveness of the manufacturing industry by introducing a more efficient and flexible production process with quality instilled from beginning to end.
It fundamentally changes the role of the quality department: the goal is no longer to control quality but rather to drive the production process to consistently deliver products with the right quality. This is called “Quality 4.0” that builds on the latest developments in device connectivity, cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The effectiveness of “Quality 4.0” however highly depends on the data that drives it. Future-proof inspection systems are characterized by:
100% part inspection with automated CT inspection
An important challenge to manufacturers is to increase product quality, which can be achieved through more frequent and timely inspection. Recent advances in high-flux, high-resolution X-ray sources coupled with automated CT inspection and robot-based loading systems enable fast inspection of production samples, with micron accuracy and low cycle times. This opens the gate to a broad span of automated defect and dimensional accuracy inspection applications ranging from batch inspection of small plastic injection moulding parts up to 100% inspection of dense turbine blades.
Automated body-in-white inspection with the Laser Radar
The Laser Radar mounted on a robot provides a unique alternative to the shortcomings of the traditional car body inspection methods. This shop floor system provides accurate, dimensional measurements in the car coordinate system allowing direct comparison to CAD without the need for a reference part. Its high-speed measurements fit within short production cycle times. The Laser Radar measures almost any surface, including highly reflective bare body panels as well as shiny painted surfaces. This robust measurement ability means the LR can be used for body-in white (BIW), panels and flush-and-gap inspections on finished cars. As inline inspection application software, Nikon Metrology presents solutions from Metrologic and InnovMetric. Also on these partner’s respective booths, Nikon Metrology is present with demonstrations.
Focus on optical scanning solutions
The complete portfolio of CMM laser scanning, portable laser scanning and optical gear inspection is on display. The cutting-edge ModelMaker H120 handheld laser scanner incorporates blue laser technology, ultra-fast frame rate, specially developed Nikon optics and the ability to measure the most challenging materials, representing the next generation of portable laser scanning.
For CMM based laser scanning, LK Metrology will demonstrate robot based CMM inspection featuring ALTERA with laser scanners.
Industrial microscopy and video measurement further extend application scope
As a world leader in imaging technology, Nikon provides an extensive portfolio of industrial microscopes and digital camera systems with outstanding versatility, performance and productivity for any application. High-end stereomicroscopes, upright microscopes, inverted metallurgical microscopes, will be displayed along with microscope peripherals and applications from various strategic partners: JEOL Neoscope scanning microscope, semi-automated material analysis from CLEMEX, Inspectis portable microscopes amongst others are presenting on the Nikon Metrology booth.
For video measurement, users can experience both NEXIV and iNEXIV demonstrations with a variety of optical and tactile application software. Also a NEXIV based video measurement system with automated wafer loading is displayed.