Control 2007, to be held between 8-11 May in Sinsheim, Germany, is the world’s leading exhibition for measuring technology and quality assurance featuring 750 exhibitors. Quality is increasingly important as vehicles become more sophisticated and complex.
The Control international trade fair for quality assurance will once again live up to its reputation as an economic barometer and a leading worldwide event in the year following its 20th anniversary.
Quality requirements are on the rise as production becomes more and more globalised. For example, instead of ordering goods, which are made in Germany or made in Japan, customers now prefer to buy brand name quality made by local suppliers to an evergreater extent. As a result, manufacturers have to maintain the same high manufacturing and quality standards at all production facilities, which in turn necessitates targeted investment at each and every location.
Romer, a company in the Hexagon Group, is delivering its first mobile NC modeler to Peugeot, echoing the good customer reception of the Romer Romocut, first shown at the Euromold trade show in December 2006. Peugeot ordered its first unit to be used for milling complete vehicle models based on CAD data fed directly into the machine.
Romocut allows design departments to deliver first physical models of upcoming vehicles in record time. The device lets designers modify full-scale models in real time and on-site, using easily pliable materials such as polystyrene or various resins.
The Skoda plant in Mladá Boleslav has integrated the Portable CMM equipment from Leica Geosystems
(from the Hexagon Group) into several crucial processes for creating prototypes. Using the Leica T-Probe, reference points are inspected on models of prototypes currently being developed. In the second step, the curvatures and the three-dimensional characteristics of entire parts are digitized with the Leica T-Scan for comparison with CAD data.
Carl Zeiss 3D Metrology Services GmbH
Carl Zeiss 3D Metrology will be exhibiting GageMax with a rotary table which auto supplier Mahle has just purchased to measure engine pistons. During an extensive test phase at the company’s factory in Colmar, France, GageMax had to prove that it is suitable for production under difficult conditions and can be easily operated by workshop staff.
The test results led to the decision to use GageMax as a flexible gage in production at all Mahle locations in Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Americas and Asia instead of the currently used manual measuring tools.
GE Inspection Technologies provides technology-driven inspection solutions that deliver productivity, quality and safety. GE designs, manufactures and services ultrasonic, remote visual, radiographic and eddy current equipment and systems. They offer specialised solutions that help improve productivity in aerospace, power generation, oil and gas, automotive or metals industries applications. GE Inspection Technologies brands include Agfa NDT, Everest VIT, Hocking NDT, Krautkramer, Nutronik, and Seifert.
The Phasor XS portable phased array ultrasonic flaw detector brings the proven advantage of Phased Array imaging to a new and accessible level. This portable and rugged device combines the productivity advantages of Phased Array with a code-compliant conventional ultrasonic flaw detector. Combined with GE Phased Array probes, the Phasor XS can solve the most demanding inspection applications in less time at an affordable price.
www.ge.com/inspectiontechnologies
Jenoptik Automatisierungstechnik GmbH
The core competences of Jenoptik are the development and manufacture of highly flexible systems for processing different materials with laser as well as the production of handling and assembly systems. Jenoptik-Votan is their product line of laser systems for the industrial series production.
The Jenoptik-Votan C BIM is designed and constructed to remove waste edges from door panelling or shoulders, to remove excess film from back-injection moulded parts or to create cut-outs in medium-sized plastic parts - cleanly and leaving no visible or structural damage. With the Jenoptik-Votan C BIM we have successfully combined the advantages of a stationary laser and a moving robot arm. This eliminates all the problems associated with conventional systems, and has been achieved by fully integrating the laser beam guide into the robot arm. The laser cutting system sets new standards in terms of precision, repeatability, dynamics and movement control.
The products of the Industrial Sensors Division include encoders, motor feed-back systems, positioning drives, ultrasonic sensors, inductive, capacitive or magnetic proximity sensors, magnetic cylinder sensors, photoelectric switches, contrast and luminescence scanners, color sensors, fork photoelectric switches, light grids, distance sensors, data transfer systems, vision sensors, position finders, and light-section sensors.
These sensors can be used to locate production differences rapidly and reliably, detect quality deviations during running operation, and optimise processes throughout all phases.
Siemens AG Automation & Drives EA OS CRM
Siemens’s Optical Solutions division offers a wide spectrum of products, systems and customized solutions that combine precision mechanics with highly complex optical technologies as well as with state-of-the-art electronics and software. Their products stand out with high precision, excellent quality and a high degree of individual adaptability.
Optical Solutions has the right solutions for many types of quality control requirements. The trend goes towards ever-smaller components and more product complexity while manufacturers want more speed and more efficiency.
A high first-pass yield rate demands that the number of faulty products or components be minimized from the start. One hundred per cent inline inspections of laser weld seams and spots are becoming more and more important.
Two dimensional processes are no longer good enough, and neither are simply spot checks.
Altera Nano is the metrology reference for quality control at the highest levels. For maximum flexibility of optical measurements, the Mycrona multi-sensor concept allows the Altera Nano to use proven fixed optics with interchangeable, high-resolution lenses (up to 50X) as a standard measuring sensor. The combination of highcapacity image processing and a variety of light sources allows for a very fast collection of measurement data along with simultaneous, high accuracy focussing of images.
Perceptron will be exhibiting its latest 3D scanning technology in the Hexagon booth, in two different applications: one will be a Perceptron 3D scanner (V3 / V4i / V5) mounted on a Romer Infinite portable measurement arm for hand-held scanning. A second demonstrated application will feature a Perceptron V4 ix 3D scanner mounted on a DEA Bravo coordinate measurement machine. Hexagon has successfully integrated Perceptron’s ScanWorks Toolkit into their PC-DMIS software, which can be employed in an infinite variety of applications.
SAP’s focus for Control 2007 will focus on enterprise service-oriented architecture and how enterprise service oriented architecture can enable business and IT to work better together to improve a company’s ability to change and grow.
The company will also cover how to upgrade to the mySAP ERP application including the alignment of strategies and operations as well as the enhancement of productivity and insight within an enterprise.
With reference to business process platforms SAP will address how having a successful business process platform, which enables change through enterprise services that unite technology and applications, can deliver fundamental business functionality supported by highly reusable parts of SAP software.
Midsize company and small businesses solutions and services will also be a concern for SAP at Control and the company will feature a comprehensive portfolio of affordable, easy-to-implement, scalable solutions.
