Model-based digital quality control from batch size 1

In the manufacturing of individualized products with a high number of variants, more flexible and adaptive optical measuring and inspection systems are increasingly needed for inline quality inspection. At the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF, Magdeburg, such customized and flexible 3D measuring systems for dimensional and form inspection as well as for assembly and completeness inspection are being developed. In addition, individual function modules are offered as software libraries, such as geometric evaluation of 3D scan data, simulation of optical sensors to generate synthetic nominal data or calibration and calibration of optical sensors.

Digital models of production facilities and products are becoming increasingly important in the manufacture of variant-rich products in small batch sizes. Manufacturing measurement systems benefit from this, which has many advantages. One example: To set up these measurement systems, it is often necessary to create a good or master part or a parameter set defined by the inspection planner. With a high number of variants, this is resource-intensive and therefore costly.

If production facilities and products are digitized, the information is available as structured CAD models. Thanks to their machine-readable form, this design-derived data can be used for a variety of purposes. Technical sub-processes for inspection planning and inspection execution can be simulated. This means that quality inspection can be planned offline in parallel with ongoing production. The Fraunhofer IFF is the partner for model-based quality assurance for the automotive, aircraft and rail vehicle industries as well as for system integrators and manufacturers of automation systems and develops testing technologies as highly flexible and adaptable system solutions.

Advantages of the technology:

• High economic efficiency due to flexible quality inspection for products with high type diversity and small quantities up to batch size 1
• Objective, automated and economical design of inspection processes in automated production
• Automated inspection planning replaces manual teach-in of inspection positions and target data
• Scalable and universally applicable technology