Improve Productivity and Traceability
Manufacturers are facing ever increasing pressures to improve productivity, conformity standards and reporting whilst at the same time reducing costs.
A non-contact measurement system provides continuous monitoring of individual manufactured units, as they are produced, removing the need for manual measurement, and can support you to:
- Achieve standards conformity and improve product uniformity and traceability.
- Improve productivity.
- Reduce the volume of material waste.
- Reduce the number of products scrapped.
- Reduce the amount of production stoppage.
- Reduce the number of end customer complaints.
- Achieve an overall reduction in production costs leading to a sustainable competitive advantage.
- Automate reporting and improve quality assurance and product traceability.
- Remove operator error and improve Health and Safety.
Example Solution: Laser Measurement System
Example illustration
A contactless laser measurement system is an integrated solution requiring no additional hardware. It comprises:
- A rig supporting precision sensor lasers mounted over the production line measuring units being produced
- A software dashboard to capture and report data
- An alarm to notify the production operative to take corrective action when the units are outside the set tolerance.
- Option to integrate data into the production process or MES system to remove user error, and the requirement for constant monitoring.
A number of lasers, rated appropriately for the accuracy required by the application, are mounted onto a gantry frame system and record the dimensions of the units as they pass underneath during the production process. An air-purged enclosure protects the lasers from harsh environments and keeps contaminants off the laser lens.
The lasers are terminated to a small control box at the end of the gantry frame. This self-contained system minimises any disruption during the installation process. The only services required for the control box are 240V mains, Ethernet, and an optional air supply, to keep the laser lens free from contaminants.
A PC is supplied with the system which connects to the interface box via Ethernet. This means that the PC can be housed in the safe environment of a control room removing the need to stop the production line in order to take regular measurements of the units.
The software interface is customisable to your specific requirements and is intuitive and easy to use – requiring no special skills.
The software logs the measurement data and is able to save this to a preferred file format, and can be integrated into a central MES platform or web-enabled device if required, to allow operators and managers to remotely monitor the system. Built-in analysis routines automatically detect the Min, Max, and Mean measurements, and these values are clearly displayed on the screen.
Tolerance alarms and warnings can be set to automatically alert operators to any issues by visual warnings on the screen and a light beacon on the interface box or remote device. This feature can be extended to send email notifications.
This cost-effective and adaptable solution is configured to your specific requirements and handles many multiple lines.
Benefits
- Independent review of your requirements
- Quick and simple to deploy
- Requires very little internal resource
- Removes the quality control requirement need to undertake manual measurement and recording
- H&S improvement (no human interaction needed with machinery in production)
- Improves quality assurance and accuracy – removes human error.
- Increase productivity
- Measurement data recorded – for further detailed analysis to improve efficiency
- Reduce the number of faulty products scrapped and amount of materials waste
- Measurable return on investment
Why Austin Consultants
- Our consultants are from the workforce with a proven track record in delivering engineering solutions in manufacturing environments.
- We take a pragmatic approach to develop a simple solution that addresses requirements without over-engineering.
- We offer proven expertise in delivering laser measurement systems.
- We are commercially aware and offer proven techniques for assessment.
- Our project process, user training and handover is robust and transparent.
- Fixed price, limited risk.
Track Record
Turbine blade measurement. Our global engineering client use lasers incorporated into a fully automated grinding process to measure the height of turbine blades being produced. The system we developed detects and captures multiple measurements along each blade with an accuracy of <10um and passes this data back into the CNC machine to calculate how much material needs to be removed.
Contactless substrate measurement. Eminox need to measure and log the diameter and height of substrates on their production line ensuring the outer bodies of the substrate material are formed to the exact size. Our high-speed production line laser measurement system records data and takes measurement accurate to 0.1mm whilst the substrate is rotated at 30RPM.
Thin film production line measurement system. We developed a system that allows a leading alloy manufacturer to accurately measure, monitor and record the thickness of metal film being manufactured on their production line.
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