Abstract
The advancement of Total Vehicle Validation requires continual evaluation and implementation of new technologies. Before moving into production, each of these technologies and processes must be evaluated for accuracy and the ability of the solution to work in a factory environment at the speeds required to support automotive production.BMW has always been on the fore-front of automation to support the production process. Robots and moving production lines have been standard business practices at BMW. The efforts described in this presentation combine BMW’s automation experience with non-contact metrology. This project was started asking three questions: (1) Can non-contact metrology measure the same geometry as our horizontal arm CMM’s and, (2) Can a combination of robot and a non-contact metrology be an alternative to a Horizontal Arm CMM in terms of equal accuracy and increased speed, and (3) Once developed can the newly process be moved to the factory floor? Development started with testing of the various sensor’s on the market. The nest step required the acquisition of a robot and turntable. After testing of various line scanners, rotary scanners and white/blue light systems on the robot the decision was made to perform a more detailed evaluation of the Laser Radar available from Nikon Metrology.
Cite this paper
Charlie Rohling, Thomas Hedges. BMW Manufacturing Co., LLC; Nikon Metrology, Inc. Presented at the Coordinate Metrology Systems Conference 2014, North Charleston, South Carolina, July 21-25, 2014. Coordinate Metrology Society, reference CMS-2014-017.