Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) engineers at the University of Warwick have developed and installed a new robotic measuring system capable of accurately and repeatedly measuring large objects on a production line (such as car body-shells) in a fraction of the time traditionally taken to measure them on co-ordinate measuring machines (CMMs).
Installed in WMG’s International Manufacturing Centre, the system comprises a large long-reach robotic arm — supplied by Kuka (
www.kuka.com) and mounted on a 5m track — that can be used with various non-contact measurement technologies.
Nikon Metrology’s Laser Radar (
www.nikonmetrology.com), which is capable of accuracies better than 0.01mm over distances of several metres, is the first technology to be trialled. Combined with the WMG system, it offers a fast and accurate solution for automotive quality control, whether in a metrology lab or on the production line.
Mark Williams, head of the Product Evaluation Technologies Group at WMG, said: “The scale and flexibility of our new robotic measurement system — housed in the same metrology lab as our benchmark twin-column CMM — gives us a unique capability within a UK university.
"We can not only trial ‘state of the art’ measurement technologies in a real-world application but also verify system performance against what is currently the gold-standard CMM for automotive measurement.
“This means that we can work with our industry research partners to both integrate technologies and trial solutions in a controlled and independent environment, and help them to select the right system for their business.”