Quantifying the Impact of Eliminating Reach and Line-of-Sight Constraints in Large-Volume Optical Metrology

Abstract

Large-volume inspection in automotive, aerospace and heavy manufacturing runs into two hard limits: the physical reach of an articulating arm, and the line of sight a laser tracker needs. Both force the same things – repositioning the instrument, interrupting the workflow, and letting operator judgment into the result. Brock LaHart sets out to put numbers on what removing those constraints is worth. The case study is a crash test facility running 200 cars a year and trying to reach 300, where measurement, not crashing, is the bottleneck: pre- and post-crash points, between seven and three hundred per car, on an IIHS B-pillar deformation test.