Automatisches Vermessen von Werkstücken in der Fertigung mit bildgebenden Sensoren.

Automatic production of mechanical parts requires quality control, in particular dimensional measurement after carrying out critical production steps. Depending on the faults it has to be decided if a reworking step can be inserted automatically. In some cases, information can be derived about the reasons underlying malfunctioning production steps (faults related to tool, workpiece, material structure or malfunction of the production machine itself). Usually, precision measurements are performed manually or by tactile measuring robots. If the production rate is high, only random tests can be done because such a procedure requires too much time. Moreover, measuring robots are so expensive that only a very small number is available at a production floor. If a bad workpiece is detected within a series, a lot of others produced in the meantime may be bad, too. This may increase production costs significantly. Imaging sensors may replace tactile sensors, thereby increase speed and offer som e special features making dimensional measurements fast enough to follow the production rate. They can be integrated, therefore, into flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) using CAD data for automatic planning of the measurements and using standardized protocols for production and measuring.