Ogihara America Corp. is a U.S.-based Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry. Its production facilities provide critical parts and assemblies to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, as well as to several Japanese companies.

Ogihara America Corp. (Howell, MI) is a U.S.-based Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry. Its production facilities provide critical parts and assemblies to General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, as well as to several Japanese companies.

The company uses the OptiCell system from CogniTens (Ramat Hasharon, Israel), having installed its first OptiCell in mid 2007 and then another in 2008. Based on customers’ requirements, Ogihara has more than 50 different parts to measure before delivery to its customers’ assembly plants.

Designed particularly for the automotive industry, OptiCell is a fully automated dimensional measurement platform with embedded software. OptiCell is a fast, accurate and robust dimensional measurement platform designed for online measurements, process control and quality assurance on the production floor. The system offers a flexible solution for dimensional measurement of a wide variety of parts and assemblies regardless of size, complexity or geometric features.

Ogihara’s process combines OptiCell’s white light measurement technology with fast and agile laser welding systems. Ogihara complements detailed part inspection with functional build applications to produce the best parts for its automotive customers. OptiCell provides Ogihara’s production associates with instant line-side data, enabling them to make comprehensive functional build adjustments as needed. The ease of use, rich metrology data set and location on the plant floor has turned the OptiCell into a welcomed asset for the Ogihara launch and production teams.

InspectionAir Gauge (Windsor, Ontario Canada), Ogihara’s integration partner, installed both systems. “Each cell that we provide to customers has been tuned based on lessons learned and enhanced with best practices and latest technologies to offer Ogihara the very best shop floor measurement solution,” says Ray Sparnaay, InspectionAir Gauge general manager. “We are now at the point at which the modular design of these cells allows us to go from idea, to concept, to shop floor integrated cell in a fraction of the time required to build traditional fixtures. CogniTens continues to take a market-driven approach to system and software development, which supports such a shift in process from traditional fixtures and probing to white light shop floor measurement.”

“We are realizing less quality loops for the new production and assembly tooling and have them ready for production faster than ever before,” says Steve Peca, executive manager for quality assurance at Ogihara America. “During launch phases, OptiCell’s 3-D measurement results make it easy to reach a full understanding of our initial part quality and allows us to focus our quality support efforts to customers during launch team part reviews. Based on our experience, the OptiCell has paid for itself in about three months simply by eliminating hundreds of CMM [coordinate measuring machine] inspection hours and iterative quality procedures.”

CogniTens
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www.cognitens.com

Benefits

Ogihara says that the CogniTen OptiCell paid for itself after three months because it eliminated the need for hundreds of CMM measurements.

With the OptiCell, Ogihara is experiencing less quality loops for new production and assembly tooling, having them ready for production faster.

OptiCell’s 3-D measurement results makes it easy for Ogihara to understand its initial part quality, allowing it to focus on quality support efforts during launch team part review.