3D Metrology Within Digital Quality Control Workflow At Control 2023
As one of the leaders on the 3D metrology software market and with more than 40 years of experience, Metrologic Group is more than ever committed to improving the industrial performance of its customers at Control 2023 exhibition.
Through its comprehensive X4 software platform, visitors will have the opportunity to discover the latest innovations and developments of the French company. Within the digital smart factory, the cutting-edge 3D metrology solutions that will be presented illustrate Metrologic Group’s pioneering approach.
Addressing Evolving 3D Metrology Challenges For Manufacturing
With live and personalized demonstrations organized during the 4 days, the visitors will be able to discover the various benefits of the proposed software solutions: programming gain, speed, data sharing, standardization, and much more.
“Our focus at Metrologic Group is to work with our customers to improve their manufacturing efficiency thanks to our X4 3D metrology platform. Our track record of introducing new 3D measurement technologies to the market, combined with the fact we are now part of Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions, allows us to deliver next generation metrology software solutions. We deliver what we call ‘End-to-End Metrology Solutions’ which encompass all aspects of the metrology process from planning through virtual programming to on-machine measurement execution and measured data management”. says Laurent Monge, President.
Metrologic Group Revolutionizes Its Offer With More Added Value For Customers
The need for accuracy and efficient metrology software solution remains high but industry is also driving the need to switch to more and more digital data management and more responsive inline adapted solutions.
This is why Metrologic Group has decided to simplify and restructure its offer this year into three main segments: CORE, ROBOT and TECH to better address the specificity of the market.
Core Segment: The Company’s Historical DNA
Added Value & Productivity: Dedicated to metrology focused on high-precision measurement in laboratories, the CORE offer responds to the important need for reliability and quality of controlled elements. Metrologic Group offers a complete, advanced, and reliable software solution that allows accurate metrological analysis, saving time, reducing costs, and improving process management. The new, simplified CORE offering has much more value in terms of delivering efficiency and productivity to customers. Indeed, it allows to optimize the use of CMMs and devices (reducing downtime) while maintaining high levels of accuracy. In short, it saves time and money through customization, standardization, and off-line solutions. With this new value proposition, Metrologic Group continues its commitment to support its customers in their performance and reliability of the inspection scheme in 2023.
Universal & Agnostic Solution: Metrologic Group is one of the few to offer universal solutions for old CMMs to make them last longer and improve performance. By providing universality, peace of mind, maintenance, hardware equipment and services, the company offers a retrofit solution to help customers retrieve best running conditions on their old CMM. The main benefit to the customer is being able to recover full machine performance and, in many cases, update it to run with a newer measuring device like an oriented head or an optical sensor. In other words, high performance at a lower cost. And even if the hardware is not intended to be changed, a software upgrade is an interesting solution to keep CMM performance up to date.
5 Axis Solution With Renishaw: Through a new partnership agreement, Metrologic Group and Renishaw offer a new accurate and productive 5-axis solution, focused on the REVO head and the Equator gauge system close to the shopfloor. There are growing demands within the manufacturing industry to increase productivity and efficiency levels at faster paces. This strong collaboration is strategic and is designed to address these current challenges.
“We are committed to working with our customers to improve their productivity and bring 3D measurement closer to the production line. The combination of Renishaw’s 5-axis technologies with our solution is a key step in this process,” explained Laurent MONGE, President of Metrologic Group. In this approach, the X4 software platform is compatible with 5-axis technology, which enables to minimize dynamic errors and increase productivity at unmatched measuring speed, improve part quality and reduce scrap.
“The combination of our two technologies will enable much faster and higher value measurements, both for process control on the manufacturing floor and for conventional quality assurance activities,” explains Victor Escobar, President of Renishaw SAS.
Services & Training: Metrologic Group offers its customers the possibility to update their knowledge or move to a new software solution with all needed support and training. Being a high-end solution provider, the company also provides several services:
- Available and efficient hotline, to bring a real after sale service
- Training factory, to bring knowledge and knowhow on every solution
- Projects management for specific machines or objectives
- Programming capabilities on demand
i-Robot segment: Automated Inspection On The Production Floor
All-In One Metrology Software Solution: With its software Metrolog X4 i-Robot, Metrologic Group revolutionizes robotic inspection with its all-in-one solution, combining robot control and inspection analysis in a powerful software package. Its user-friendly interface simplifies programming of robotic inspection routines, while advanced algorithms analyze collected data. Suitable for aerospace and automotive manufacturing, it streamlines inspection processes, reduces errors, and improves efficiency, achieving unparalleled accuracy and precision.
Path Planning: Metrolog X4 i-Robot creates highly optimized robotic paths by considering all the constraints and limitations of the robotic installation, leading to efficient and effective inspections. This feature reduces errors, improves accuracy, and minimizes inspection time, making it an invaluable tool for high-precision inspections, even in complex industrial environments.
Universal Solution: Metrolog X4 i-Robot’s universality is a major advantage, as it’s compatible with a wide range of robotic equipment and optical sensors, providing flexibility to businesses to select the best fit equipment for their needs and budget. This feature allows easy integration into existing systems, reducing costs and downtime, and optimizing inspection processes, making it an ideal choice for businesses.
i-Tech segment: special machines and custom installation
With the X4 i-Tech offer, Metrologic Group proposes to any kind of customer to address their custom inline inspection projects:
- Customer who wants to acquire a specific inline inspection need by creating a special machine, custom installation, in-situ in their production flow.
- Customer who wants to get the manufacturing link with this special inspection machine for which the company provides integrated software solutions.
Metrologic Group offers a select i-Tech software component to meet their own needs. According to their requests, the company will assemble the software components, and address specific functions such as CAD management, simulation, drive sensors, etc.
The End-to-End Process: Seamless Approach Delivers Transversality and Optimization Within Connected Factory
This year’s booth at Control will allow visitors to be immersed in the collaborated and digital End-to-End ecosystem and its modular structure through 4 open distinct steps: preparation, programming, execution, and analysis of results.
This connected approach will change the face of industry by reducing the total cost of ownership for industrial manufacturers by eliminating metrology silos, facilitating greater collaboration between teams and plants, and ensuring consistency of measurement results.
Perfectly integrated into the digital quality workflow, the End-to-End process improves all stages of manufacturing processes thanks to its transversal tools, able of optimizing the 3D measurement process and finally “making sense of data”. From the initial planning of the 3D measurement strategy to the full analysis of the inspection results and machine monitoring, this approach articulates seamlessly for a total cost control and process optimization.
Step 1 – Prepare: The first step is to prepare offline the measurement process by identifying the features to be measured and preparing the inspection feature plan. Planner X4 is compatible with any CAD and any embedded PMI data or inspection planning files (proprietary or standard ones like QIF).
Step 2 – Program: With its dedicated offline analysis and virtual programming software Silma X4 based on the Digital Twin concept, Metrologic Group allows a better throughput, a better efficiency, and a faster programming. As an intelligent program that improves productivity, Silma X4 and its Path Planning module meet the needs to simplify, streamline and optimize inspection processes. The Silma X4 Inspection Path Planning module significantly improves productivity by reducing programming time by up to 60% and guarantees robust and reliable program creations with zero crashes.
Step 3 – Execute: By seamlessly connecting Metrolog X4 software to the chosen measuring device, the user can drive it, capture the data, and perform the complete analysis then report, export, and publish the data in any desired format including SQL database with simple connectivity. With its universality, Metrolog X4 connects the whole chain of measurement equipment, whatever the brands or technologies. As the best-in-class software in GDT analysis and with accurate Point Cloud algorithms, Metrolog X4 has proven its value to the world’s largest manufacturers.
Step 4 – Manage: Metrologic Group provides different digital collaboration tools for manufacturing decision-making, simplify the workflow, and interact with the production. This last step based on a digital collaboration platform aims to facilitate teamwork and process monitoring by interconnecting all team members that capture or need access to 3D measurement information.
At each step of the quality control process, the End-to-End solution brings a strong added value and helps customers and end-users standardize their metrology capacities for optimized costs, efforts, and training management, all from a single point of advice.
Manufacturing Automation with Sandvik Metrology Solutions
The Sandvik range of products and solutions are designed to enhance quality, efficiency, productivity and connect them with the engineering teams to give manufacturers a competitive edge.
As a member of the Sandvik Group since 2018, the synergies created between Metrologic Group and the different entities of the group are targeted at a combined offering for a more seamless production chain. By interconnecting the machining and quality assurance process, it facilitates the integration of 3D metrology into the manufacturing system.
Beside of enabling new options for traceability, Sandvik Manufacturing Solutions ambitions are to enable the quality responsibility to be empowered near to the point of production. This approach is in line with the ambition of Lean and reduce centralized islands. This is the core principle behind Sandvik’s own metrology solution.
As part of the End-to-End approach mentioned above, Metrologic Group and DCS (Dimensional Control Systems), a manufacturing quality software and service provider, have come together to offer a comprehensive solution combining simulation, design, measurement planning, inspection, quality monitoring and management. To ensure high quality and reduces defects across the entire Product Life Cycle, the two companies offer a complete agnostic solution to solve suppliers manufacturing quality issues.
In order to provide customers with a proven inline inspection solution, Metrologic Group has teamed up with DWFritz, which designs, builds, and supports engineer-to-order automation systems and an expanding line of high-speed, non-contact metrology and inspection solutions. The ZeroTouch high-speed non-contact inspection platform can be combined with Metrolog X4 software. The two Sandvik companies work closely together to deliver a highly efficient and comprehensive metrology solution that produces accurate results, and meaningful data in an industry-proven package.
In conclusion, the Sandvik metrology solutions can help automating the manufacturing process and can provide value as unique products or act as building blocks for a complete platform. By implementing the different products, the customers will benefit from improved quality control, digital thread integration, closed-loop feedback, automation, and time savings.
For more information: www.metrologic.group
