Cognitive Production Metrology for Flexible Small Series Production

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr.-Ing. Robert Heinrich Schmitt
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Produktionssystematik, Betriebswissenschaften, Qualitätsmanagement und Fabrikplanung
• Förderung: Förderung von 2009 bis 2014
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 139100076

In order to increase the manufacturing efficiency of high-quality products in flexible small series production lines, the overall research and technology development objective of this cooperative research project has been defined as: Development of a new generation of production metrology and quality assurance systems with a higher degree of cognitive perception regarding the product and the process . Today, many factors are impelling the improvements of production processes. The customers become more exigent in relation to the product personification and quality, which results in a demand for smaller and more flexible production series with a considerable diversity of components. Consequently, the control of the manufacturing tasks becomes more complicated, offering great challenges for the quality assurance systems. The quality assurance strategy that is nowadays used for mass production (with fixed metrological configurations) is unable to cope with the inspection flexibility needed among automated small series production, because the measuring strategy is totally dependent on the fixed features of the few manufactured object variants. The major challenge faced by a quality assurance system applied to small series production facilities is to guarantee the needed quality level already at the first run ( first time right on time ), because the quality assurance system has to adapt itself constantly to the new manufacturing conditions. The small series production culture requires a change of paradigms, because its strategies are totally different from mass production. Distinct measurement principles or configurations will be needed for the inspection of objects with different shapes and/or materials. By flexible small production lines the inspection system deals with different product variants and a large amount of inspection features. Flexible industrial metrology plays thus an indispensable role, in order to maintain the high quality level of products and processes and simultaneously attend the flexibility level of the small series production. Higher cognitive levels for the interpretation and coordination of information acquisition and flow are needed, to guarantee a complete and robust analysis of product and process quality. The focus of the project concentrates in two main research themes, which are extremely important for achieving the main objective: • Quality planning: automatic and dynamic generation of inspection plans (including choice of adequate sensors) based on the product and process data, as well as prediction of the quality of processes and products, anticipating possible process parameter changes for dynamic production improvement.• Measurement systems: flexible integration of different optical measurement systems into laboratory prototypes and demonstrators, which simulate an industrial environment, aiming at a more robust and reliable perception about process and product features. Conception of a new generation of optical measurement systems, able to combine 2D and 3D information acquired from different sources for a complete evaluation of the product quality. The cognitive production metrology technology will be able to automatically and independently define an inspection task (holistic planning) as well as autonomously apply it for a great amount of product variants, making use of different measurement and inspection systems. It will contribute directly for reducing the complexity of pilot production series, for speeding up the production start time and assuring a maximum quality level for the process and product. This solution is meant to be researched and validated inside two different scenarios: one in Brazil, by the assembly of printed circuit boards (PCB) and another in Germany, by the multisensor based inspection of freeform parts.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen
• Internationaler Bezug: Brasilien
• Partnerorganisation: Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior; (CAPES); Setor bancario Norte
• Beteiligte Personen: Professor Dr.-Ing. Tilo Pfeifer; Professor Dr.-Ing. Carlos Alberto Schneider; Professor Dr.-Ing. Marcelo Ricardo Stemmer