In order to meet today's demand for higher quality, faster, sleeker, and multi-functional vehicles, companies are advancing their design, engineering and manufacturing processes to help speed up product development to production.
- Design
- Tool Building
- Functional Build / Pilot Production
- Production
- Marketing
- Related Case Studies
When building an aircraft for the commercial, defense, and space industries, the manufacturing is a labor intensive process which requires the capability to measure large structures quickly for fit, form, and dimensional validation accuracy. Turbine engines and sub-components, such as airfoils, turbine blades, blisks, stators, etc., require a high level of accuracy at rapid speeds especially during inline production. In order to reach these goals, companies are utilizing Capture 3D metrology solutions for various applications inside these industries.
- Design
- Analysis
- Production
- MRO (Maintence, Repair & Overhaul)
- Related Case Studies
Since our initial installation in 1998, Ford Motor Company has been a long time satisfied customer of Capture 3D. Through extensive benchmarking analysis, we chose the ATOS and TRITOP systems for their speed, accuracy, and user-friendly work flow processes. These solutions have improved our concept through manufacturing processes by reducing both time, costs, and improving product quality. We've implemented Capture 3D solutions to digitize clay models, directly mill from scan data, inspect sheet metal, machined parts and tooling, and perform root cause and trend analysis. At times, our Capture 3D systems have run 3 shifts per day, 6 days a week. We've received outstanding support from the Capture 3D team and over the last 11 years have utilized their systems upgrade program to capitalize on solution enhancements in an effective cost of ownership manner.
Manager Design Measurement
Ford
The primary goal in obtaining an optical sensor was for speeding up our problem resolution time. This adequately did the job while other projects organically spawned off such as pre-DV (design validation) qualification, resulting in higher first time throughput of development testing and pre-PPAP (production parts approval process) qualification which serves as a great dimensional check and with that, the free automatic snapshot of the part at launch. After testing several metrology technologies we narrowed down our selection to two optical 3D scanners. We further benchmarked both systems and chose Capture 3D’s ATOS solution because of the accuracy, faster workflow process, higher data quality, and ease of use. The data quality from the other system was inferior and the paid-for interrogation analysis package simply didn’t stack up to the free version of GOM Inspect. ATOS has become our primary measurement tool and with it we have increased efficiencies by optimizing our dimensional analysis methods. The free GOM Inspect software has proven to be a valuable asset empowering each product group to perform thorough inspections and quickly solve problems at their workstations, thus freeing up our ATOS system to continually measure parts. We are currently in the process of institutionalizing GOM Inspect throughout the organization. The Capture 3D support team and the GOM online tutorials have been very helpful and we are able to quickly train new users.
Product Engineer
TRW Automotive
Optical 3D coordinate measuring technology from GOM is used for quality assurance in design and tool-making departments, press shops, car body shops and close to production lines in nearly all BMW plants worldwide. For example the press shop at BMW's Dingolfing plant relies on optical metrology systems, including automation and standardization for inspection of sheet-metal components. 3D coordinate measuring technology is offering here, high time-saving potential as sensor, automation and inspection software all come from a single-source provider. Besides the automated measurement processes that have been continuously developed in close collaboration between BMW and GOM, another positive aspect of all the GOM optical metrology systems in use at BMW is high transparency.
AS the free GOM Inspect Software operates on hundreds of computers throughout the group and, in addition, resides on BMW’s internal network server – along with 28,000 completed metrology projects. This information can be accessed by all colleagues and departments involved, saving significant time in component evaluation discussions. This way 3D data is archived rather than storing the physical components. The collaborative relationship between BMW and the GOM automation team has proved highly successful – not only the Dingolfing workers value the professional support they receive with sensor, automation and data evaluation from a single source partner.
Quality Manager
BMW
We invited various scanning companies to benchmark their technologies. Based on the results we decided to move forward with Capture 3D. The ATOS system process had a smooth flow, was easy to use with accurate and repeatable results. When comparing an ATOS with a Laser Scanner mounted on a CMM, we have found the ATOS system to have far more repeatable results. We use the ATOS system primarily for first article inspection to aide our tool tuning process. Each tool iteration requires about $25K in expense. Using our CMM we would typically have 3-4 iterations, and now with the ATOS system we have just one. One project alone justified the cost of the ATOS. Through our experiences we have come to be more confident in our ATOS measurement then those from the CMM. As they say, "a picture is worth 1,000 words," and with the ATOS software we can instantly generate easy to read inspection color maps that allow us to quickly analyze our parts.
Sr. CMM Technician
Mann+Hummel
Motorola utilized the extensive Six Sigma DMAIC process to benchmark tactile measurement systems, laser scanners and numerous white light scanners. We used accuracy as a main criteria to narrow down the playing field and then focused on speed and ease of use. We found that with Capture 3D's Motion Control system we were able to analyze our parts quicker, and it requires very little training and no special skill sets. With the ATOS Motion Control integration it allows us to easily program variable part sizes for an automated routine. We are currently on target to meet a 13-14 month payback compared to our old processes. In addition we are able to get product to market quicker and help our customers and vendors solve their build and fit issues.
Operations Manager
Motorola
In our benchmarking process, we looked at various technologies, such as laser and white light scanners, we found that the ATOS was the only system that could achieve the accuracy and data quality we required. Our primary applications are inspection and reverse engineering of tooling. It takes us 2 hours to measure and inspect electrodes to parabola tools with ATOS. Previously with our CMM, it took 50 hours to measure each electrode, including setup and programming time. Instead of receiving a 20-30 page CMM report, we now receive instant inspection color plot results that are more easily understood and reduces the amount of time it takes to make required changes. Once the electrode is burned into the tool, it takes us ½ an hour to scan and inspect. With the CMM it took us 20 hours. We also use the ATOS system for reverse engineering of tools that are either broken, worn, and/or have no CAD data. Because of the accuracy of the scanner, we are able to mill directly from the scan data eliminating the need to create a CAD model. We are continuously impressed with the reliability of the ATOS system and since its acquisition in 2005 it has never failed us.
Production Manager
Chicago Mold
In 2007 we purchased the Capture 3D ATOS I SO system, and since then it has virtually paid for itself and improved several aspects of our business. Due to the ease of use, we have trained many employees to utilize the equipment. Therefore, we have eliminated our previous CMM scheduling and employee specialization requirements for root cause analysis and dimensional inspection. As a result, the time to obtain data reduced from 4 to 6 weeks to less than 2 to 3 days.
It has also helped us reduce our time to PPAP approval for many of our components. Prior to implementing the ATOS system into our business, there was a lot of time wasted in identifying tooling discrepancies and validating the corrections prior to PPAP. With the ATOS system, however, we are able to quickly highlight problems in our tools and correct them accordingly. In fact, the number in times we needed to measure a given part prior to PPAP decreased from 4 times to 2 times because of the speed and accuracy with which we are able to analyze and fix our tools.
Another area in which the ATOS system has benefitted our business is in the improvement of our designs and processes. We not only use it to dimensionally validate our parts, but we have also used it to validate our Mold Flow predictions. The system has allowed us the ability to more accurately highlight differences between our predictions and our actual parts. As a result, our predictions have grown more accurate, allowing us to better execute any future products.
Finally, any time there have been questions or concerns with our ATOS system, Capture 3D's support network has been able to help. Whether we needed clarification on how to perform a certain function or help with a software issue, their support was able to provide solutions.
All in all, I would recommend the ATOS system to any business looking to improve the time it takes to verify their parts and their designs.
APQP Quality Engineer
Visiocorp
Samvardhana Motherson Relectec Company
We were tasked by management with an aggressive goal to transform our Design to Tool Building process to all Digital. Our research lead us to choose ATOS as the system most likely to provide the success we were looking for in such a short period of time. We very quickly achieved our goals and reduced the process from 3 - 5 days down to a 1.5 hour process. This decision created a significant savings in time and money while shortening our product time to market.
