Tal Vagman on dimensional metrology

Hexagon Metrology's innovative products are aimed at providing fully integrated quality solutions to global manufacturers. Tal Vagman, Director - Product Strategy, explained the company's role in the dimensional metrology market.
Hexagon Metrology has been a pioneer in dimensional metrology market space.

IMNE: Can you start by providing our readers a brief of Hexagon Metrology's current role in the dimensional metrology market?
That is true. Hexagon Metrology has a long history of developing innovative measurement systems and software products and successfully partnering with customers. Today we offer a very comprehensive range of products and services for industrial metrology applications in sectors, such as automotive, aerospace, energy and medical. We are active globally with more than 20 production facilities and 70 precision centres and a network of over 100 distribution partners. Our diverse portfolio includes stationary CMMs, portable measuring arms, laser trackers and scanners, white light scanners, various sensors, hand gauges and other measurement and software solutions. All in all, we care for a growing install base of millions of CMMs, portable measuring systems and handheld instruments, and tens of thousands of metrology software licenses and growing.

IMNE: What do you think is the potential for fully automated dimensional metrology solutions as the new industry standard? How do you think this could impact the market landscape?
Clearly, the metrology domain is expanding towards automation and shop floor operation and this introduces new challenges and opportunities. In the automotive industry we see good potential for this trend to strengthen and for more measurement and process control applications to be carried out in an automatic manner in the next years. Combined with large area measurement and more advanced analysis tools there are many improvements that could be made which are aligned with customer objectives namely higher quality, shorter time to market and operational flexibility. This trend could promote additional measurement systems to be used in the production environment and integrated into the production process in a variety of applications. This can further empower customer to monitor, identify, pin point and resolve quality issues faster than before.

IMNE: In your opinion, what is driving improvements in quality, reliability, and flexibility of dimensional metrology equipment?
I believe it is a mix between the providers' innovation process and working closely with customers and understanding their needs. In the automotive sector, for instance, there are various drivers for improvements such as our customers' need for higher throughput systems, more comprehensive and accurate measurements, reliable operation in shop floor environments, and of course further automating processes and getting more actionable information to directly improve product quality. In different industry sector there are some slightly different trends but a few common issues as well, which apply to automotive body, aerospace assemblies and white goods, for instance.

IMNE: What do you think is the future for fully automated metrology solutions and, more specifically, what role can we expect Hexagon Metrology to play in shaping the future of the industry?
We are looking forward to growth of the segment, transition, and integration of measurement technologies and continued broadening in the community manufacturers and applications that are ready to embrace in-line and automated shop floor metrology. Hexagon Metrology has demonstrated its commitment to this segment with numerous innovations in sensor, software, on-site services and integrated solutions development. For us this is a natural evolvement of our offering and great opportunity to cooperate with partners and customers and contribute from our unique added values.