Production-integrated quality-control using optical measurement techniques

Abstract

In today’s manufacturing processes, optical measurement techniques are becoming increasingly popular for on-line quality control. This fast and cheap technique enables manufacturers to not only check single points given by an inspection plan, but entire surfaces. This paradigm change brings new possibilities as well as new challenges to the inspection process. We devised software and technologies that achieve a seamless integration of optical measurement techniques into the existing workflow in the production process from design and prototyping up to series production. These techniques go far beyond the simple measuring of structural dimensions. The system permits the management and storage of the complete history of measurements. Hence, trends in deviations from the desired quality or functionality can be determined early and easily. This helps to implement corrective actions even before the produced structures fail to meet the specifications. Using a safe and decentralized server architecture using https, all data is available across business units and plants. Additionally, we developed highly interactive visualization and data exploration tools which enable expert users to fast and easily evaluate the measured data. With these techniques and visualization tools, we combine the advantages of optical measurements with the established evaluation of tactile measurements.