Integration of Laser Tracker System in BIW Measurement: A Case Study in Automotive Industry

Abstract

Product and process quality assurance are challenging task due to increasingly narrowing product specifications. Coordinate measurement is one of the key technologies used in the area of dimensional control to inspect and improve the accuracy of produced components. Dimensional inspection tasks are often carried out on conventional coordinate measuring machines (CMMs). However, there are strong concerns about CMMs usage due to low measurement capacity, speed, flexibility, and limited accessibility to the underbody and inside the body measurement points. Besides, the agility requirement in diagnostic measurements in case of blocking quality problems is a critical task to be handled. In order to overcome these challenges, automotive companies are tending to adapt laser scanning technologies. However, according to the limited study to make a comparison in the literature, they are less accurate than the measurement with contact probe. In this study, the assessment of body geometry measurement capability was performed for off-line Leica laser scanning system through uncertainty and measurement system analysis (MSA) and compared with CMM. The obtained results demonstrated that the uncertainty and Gauge Repeatability & Reproducibility () values of laser scanning technology are very satisfactory for body geometry measurements. Besides, the measurement capacity due to increased speed, and the accessibility due to non-contact measurements are seriously improved compared to CMM.