It is estimated that almost 90 million vehicles are produced worldwide in a year, which means that there are around 171 vehicles produced every minute. In the highly competitive automotive industry, efficiency and automation drive the whole manufacturing process. An efficient and accurate inspection is a must-have for auto manufacturers to maintain an edge over competitors.
Sheet metal parts, especially stamping parts, are widely used in the automotive industry. Stamping is a high-efficiency and low-cost fabrication technique that can produce a high volume of identical stamping components in a short time. In-time inspection of these stamping parts is a priority for auto manufacturers.
The customer in this case is a well-known tier-one stamping parts supplier for automotive enterprises including Guangzhou Honda, Guangzhou Toyota, Nissan Motor. In this case, the stamping parts they produced are of various sizes and shapes with a total of 782 different types.
How a piece of inspection equipment can handle tasks such as initial sampling inspection, full-scale measurement, and batch analysis are among the top considerations of stamping workshops. To conduct inspection on the shop floor, auto manufacturers would like a piece of inspection equipment that is not sensitive to environment. Easy-to-operate interface, intuitive measurement results, intelligent analysis are all preferred to save training and operating costs.
Scantech 3D Solution
Scantech offers a customized automated 3D inspection solution based on the customer’s demands. With our in-house developed AutoScan-T, we inspected and analyzed surface deviation, hole diameter, hole position, hole-to-hole distance, boundary, and gauge of its stamping parts. The following are the highlights of our solution that we’d like to share with you.
Benefits
Efficient and accurate
With the help of 17 blue laser crosses and optical tracking technology, AutoScan-T performed 3D scanning at a scanning rate of up to 1.9 million MPS with an accuracy of up to 0.025 mm. The accuracy was not affected by external factors including robotic arms and guide rails. It enabled our customers to scan metal sheets in an average of 3 minutes and only 1 minute for small-size objects.
Non-destructive measurement without sticking markers
Automatic optical tracking measurement technology enables us to perform non-contact measurements without sticking markers. In this way, we saved preparation time for scanning and avoided potential damages to the workpiece.
Easy operation
AutoScan-T measurement system-generated inspection reports in the form of a color map in real-time. A color map with many red areas indicated that the product failed to meet the criteria. After one inspection was completed, the technician selected a new item number to start another 3D inspection. A new procedure ran automatically to inspect the item and generated an inspection report.
Real-time and complete inspection results helped the auto manufacturer to monitor the whole manufacturing process, which saved labor and time.
Work under harsh conditions
AutoScan-T was located 20 meters from the stand of a stamping press which weighed 2500 tons. The vibration caused by the stamping press hardly affected the inspection.
Low maintenance costs
Conventional inspection methods require a dedicated lab with constant temperature and humidity and no vibration to conduct inspections. The maintenance of labs, fixtures, and inspection tools is costly. On-site inspection of AutoScan-T saved the costs of a dedicated lab. Its flexible build configuration also saved storage and maintenance of fixtures.
Integration and customization
The inspection was highly improved by efficiently integrating a 3D automatic inspection system into the production line. Our engineers customized the inspection procedure to meet the specific needs of the company. The measurement results were displayed on screens of two stamping lines respectively as the customer required.
Complete data for further study
The measurement range of our solution is sufficient to inspect all 782 parts of various sizes. With complete and precise inspection data, our customer can conduct further analysis for mold repair, process improvement, and production.
3D Scanned data and inspection results
The automatic inspection of stamping parts constituted an upgrade of digital quality control on the shop floor. It greatly enhanced the efficiency and save costs of inspections for the company. Scantech will continue devoting efforts to offer convenient, fast, and accurate 3D digital solutions. In this way, we would support our customers to digitize its inspection process and greatly shorten time-to-market.
This content was originally published on the Scantech website.
