Quality control professionals, inspectors and machinists have a new cost-effective, reliable option for maintaining wireless data integrity. A complete, robust wireless data collection system that uses a wireless mesh network offers many advantages over conventional data collection.
Genchi Genbutsu, a Japanese QC concept, which loosely translates to “go to the actual spot and see for yourself,” or, in other words, go to the site and form an opinion first-hand, can be applied to the hot area of mobile data collection, in which process measurements are carried out in areas of the plant that auditors or inspectors could not otherwise access with their gages.
One of the jobs of metrology system manufacturers is to make better, more sophisticated products. Ironically, however, they are frequently met with the argument that because inspection is essentially a nonvalue-added process, their efforts in product development run counter to their customers’ needs. Their customers need to reduce costs, and inspection is a cost. Ergo, the price of high-end form and surface metrology systems-and the development of ever more sophisticated ones-is not justified. Instead, they are told, they should concentrate on simpler, more accurate, reliable and less expensive gages for inspection.
Freightliner Customizes Quality The Quality Magazine 2007 Plant of the Year, Freightliner’s Mt. Holly, NC, Truck Manufacturing Plant, is loud-bring earplugs-and busy, producing about 80 trucks per day, with plans to produce twice that in the coming years. The plant is constantly in motion, with 1,200 employees weaving throughout the shop floor, along with robots, automated carts and, of course, various parts on their way to becoming a truck.
Like a network of arteries, pipes and tubes-such as those used for fuel or brake fluid-ensure power and safety in cars. When installing up to 12 different lines in a vehicle, every millimeter counts, because space underneath the vehicle is tight, and mistakes in installation-such as of a brake fluid line-can be detrimental to driving safety.
Many inspection applications require very precise measurements. While software algorithms, via sub pixel interpolation, can provide very fine measurements, they cannot provide accurate or repeatable results if there is any variation in the image created. The choice of optics for a given application can mean the difference between the success and failure of a measurement system.
Too often in the process of selecting machine vision components, decisions on how all the vision components are to be synchronized are left until the end. Many times this can lead to long and costly system integration time, so it is important to look at the synchronization issues before selecting the system components.
Hall Effect gages are particularly important in the blow molding industry for measurement of wall thickness in plastic bottles and similar containers, as well as many other situations involving relatively thin, nonmagnetic products such as aluminum containers, plastic and glass tubing, scientific glassware, and many small machined or molded plastic and composite parts.
On a recent Thursday morning, I went to New York for a plant visit. I live in Chicago, so instead of my usual drive, my morning commute was a two-hour flight. It was a short trip: one taxi picked me up at 6:30 a.m. and another one took me home 12 hours later. Though I only spent a few hours with the company, I considered the trip a success because I learned a lot and-no small miracle when flying out of O’Hare airport-both flights were on time.
New 3-D analysis capability in stereomicroscopy is available. Conventional stereomicroscopes now transform into true 3-D measurement devices with full analytical capability to generate profile, roughness, area and volumetric measurements.
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