Benefit from modern production metrology to reduce setup times, ensure quality and increase process reliability

To ensure that your measuring instrument is capable of completing measurement tasks adequately, it is necessary to verify the instrument’s measuring capability and accuracy. These are usually determined based on predefined Cg and Cgk values. Other important factors in production metrology are high repeatability, traceability to national and international calibration standards, compliance with global ISO standards, and low measurement uncertainties.

In production environments, several machines are simultaneously in use. Thus, the simple and intuitive operation of your manufacturing metrology is indispensable. Single-button solutions and automated measuring procedures ensure constant measurements without user influence.

Flexible production asks for flexible measuring systems. Production managers are increasingly confronted with the production of different components in small batches. Thus, various component shapes, types and sizes made of different materials or composites must be measured quickly and reliably. Modern measurement technology must adapt to these varying conditions - ideally, one measurement system covers all measurement tasks regardless of size and surface finish.

A measuring instrument's stability is crucial for ensuring high process reliability at all times. When measuring a component at different times over a longer period, results must be consistent, even with varying environmental conditions such as temperature, vibrations or illuminations.

Modern production strategies are increasingly based on integrated production concepts. With Industry 4.0, production systems, machines, and measuring devices communicate with each other to enable adaptive production planning and self-controlled production. In this production concept, also referred to as "Smart Manufacturing", measuring instruments are integrated directly into production: Measuring sensors recognize faulty components and automatically feed this information into the production loop. Production automatically adapts to the new information and corrects the error. To ensure long-term implementation of self-controlled production, the production measuring devices employed must fulfill various requirements. Among these are fully automatic measurements, high-precision sensors suitable for production environments, and interfaces for easy connection and integration into existing production systems.

Measurement and setup times are directly related. Short setup times demand high measurement speeds and repeatable, traceable measurement results. The faster measurement results are available, the faster operators can react. Therefore, measurement speed is a key factor in reducing downtime and ensuring fast responses and short process adjustment times, all of which contribute to economic and efficient production without reject. 

The investment in production metrology must be profitable. A fast ROI, reduced maintenance costs and ongoing operation without consumables are part of the overall calculation. Solutions that increase the efficiency of the entire measuring process are also in demand. This can be implemented, for example, with the operator software MetMaX that enables measurement planning already in the CAD model of the reference component. The tedious and time-consuming definition of measuring positions on the real component thus becomes obsolete. This is particularly attractive if many measuring positions have to be defined and taught in.