FW Gartner-Products & Services-QA / QC-Accuraspray G3

QA / QC — FARO

Inspection of parts and providing a measurement report is an essential part of today's lean manufacturing world. Quality standards are higher than ever reducing production waste and costs as well as non conformance which can lead to production down time. Please select the type of inspection application most suitable to your needs.

First Article Inspection
Requirement
Prototype parts are typically produced in small quantities, individual parts can easily be measured either geometrically or compared to nominal data to ensure that the part was correctly produced.

Solution
The FaroArm, Laser Tracker, FARO Gage or ScanArm can all be used to inspect parts depending upon size and accuracy requirements.

Benefit
Be the part a one off reverse engineered replacement part or the prototype for a larger batch to follow the time saving made by avoiding the lengthy programming procedure of a traditional inspection tool is a huge advantage.

On machine inspection
Requirement
To inspect parts on the machine tool in the production environment.

Solution
The advent of the FARO Gage allows the machine tool operator to inspect the part on the machine meaning that remachining can commence immediately and tighter tolerances with fewer errors can be recorded directly on the shop floor.

Benefit
Removing a part from a machine to a temperature controlled inspection area in order to verify the part is a time consuming and expensive procedure. Inspecting parts directly on machine increases uptime and productivity improving your bottom line.

CAD based inspection
Requirement
Inspection of parts against nominal data.

Solution
Whether using a contact or non contact inspection device every FARO product is capable of comparing a part a part to nominal data. The hard probes of FARO's Laser Tracker or FaroArm can compare complex geometry, surface tolerance and feature positions to nominal data. FARO Laser Scanning devices can be used for non contact comparisons.

Benefit
Measurement directly against CAD data allows the operator to see real time deviations from nominal, this allows parts to be produced including an inspection report certifying the part has been machined within acceptable tolerances.

Large part inspection
Requirement
To inspect large machined parts quickly and accurately.

Solution
The portability and performance of the FARO Laser Tracker allows anyone from Heavy Engineering, Bus Manufacturing, Boat and Ship Building to Particle Accelerators and Radar Assemblies to measure large parts anywhere. Trackers can be used to inspect any parts of unlimited size.

Benefit
Being able to measure a large part in situ gives the benefit of not having to move the part to an inspection tool. This saves both time and transportation cost.

Non contact inspection
Requirement
To inspect without making contact with a part.

Solution
The point cloud acquisition devices such as the FARO ScanArm and Laser Scanner LS dense clouds of 3-D points can now capture from the tightest accuracies to 76m measuring envelope, this data can easily be aligned to the nominal data in order to compare virtuality to reality. Geomagic Qualify, Polyworks or Rapidform can be used to perform 3-D surface form comparison, 2-D cross sectional analysis and feature inspection. part dimensions can be verified and point clouds can even be compared to point clouds allowing the fit two actual parts to be compared.

Benefit
All of this can be completed without ever coming in contact with the part allowing soft, deformable and complex shapes to be easily inspected.

Reverse engineering
Turning reality into a virtual representation is being employed in more and more aspects of our everyday lives. From modeling ancient buildings, production plants, crime scenes and football stadiums to design concepts for cars and for replacement parts which have no design data, reverse engineering is a broad field allowing us to create virtually anything we can touch. FaroArms and Laser Trackers can be used to reverse engineer geometric objects whilst more complex shapes are better captured using a non contact device such as a ScanArm or Laser Scanner LS.

Requirement
To digitize a part or object creating a fully surfaced CAD model which can be used to record and reproduce the item.

Solution
Using a FARO Laser ScanArm free form surfaces can be rapidly scanned to produce a point cloud. This can be triangulated and surfaced using our various software options. Touch probe devices such as the Laser Tracker or FaroArm can also be used to reverse engineer geometric parts.

Benefit
The main advantage of using laser scanning technology is the timesaving, many thousands of points are captured every second meaning that parts can be rapidly reverse engineered and reproduced virtually. As FARO solutions are portable parts can be reverse engineered without having to be relocated.

Calibration
Calibration is required if initial setups can stand the test of time. Drift appears after many hours of repeating the same task and with this drift parts can be produced up to the limits of their tolerances. The solution, on site recalibration any time the requirement is there. Robot calibration to machine tool setup any of these items can be quickly checked and realigned if necessary.

Machine tool evaluation and calibration
Requirement
Identifying defects in a part produced does not always determine the root cause of the problem, therefore an evaluation of the machine tool responsible for the parts production can identify a poor calibration.

Solution
The larger the machine tool the more difficult and time consuming evaluation can become. FARO's Laser Tracker can be used to check large machine tools with no setup time and perform full volumetric accuracy test to ensure the parts are always being machined to the highest standard.

Benefit
Root cause of manufacturing defects can quickly be identified or even preempted allowing the solution or workaround to be implemented minimizing production downtime.

Robot calibration
Requirement
Robots require calibration to operate accurately in their work cell. Over time robots may drift from the intended nominal path programmed. Recalibration is required to ensure the robot is performing its programmed accurately

Solution
The FARO Laser Tracker provides the fastest and most accurate robot cell calibration available today. This system works with all makes and models of robots and saves countless hours of teach time and the high accuracy translates into high reliability on the production line.

Benefit
The FARO Laser Tracker enables users to increase the accuracy of their robotic systems, and eliminate the time consuming manual teaching or “touch-up” work. This system provides a solution for accurate Off Line Programming (OLP), re-mastering following a crash, setting or recovering Tool Center Point, and moving a robotic system from integration site to production site.