Optical Measuring System for Positioning of Objects
Aligning components or machines is a daily routine both in prototyping and production: In vehicle production, the door to be mounted has to be placed in the right position to the door cutout. A component that is supposed to be milled has to be aligned to the milling machine. And when a new machine is integrated into the manufacturing process, it must be brought into position. These examples show only a fraction of the positioning and adjusting tasks in production. However, the requirements are the same in all cases: the position of the measuring object has to be inspected geometrically on the basis of specified data (CAD or reference data) by measuring the relevant points on the object. Then, deviations to the target position have to be corrected.
Quite often, this task is solved with the help of laser measuring systems (laser trackers) or probing systems like articulated arms. These have a huge drawback though: They inspect the relevant points on the measuring object step by step, successively. So when the measuring object is moved during alignment, all points have to be remeasured several times. In contrast, MoveInspect HR measures all points at the same time. This is possible because Aicon's optical measuring system is able to measure and correct an arbitrary number of measuring points simultaneously.
The system works with reference points, e.g. CAD datum points, and captures them at any time. Thus, the three dimensional reference is valid throughout the whole measurement cycle, even when the object or the measuring system are moved for further modification offeatures. Hereby, MoveInspect HR knows at any moment where the test object is located in space.
Capturing Hidden Points
With MoveInspect HR, it is even possible to measure hidden points. For this there is a trick: Before the measurement begins, the operator has to "inform" the measuring system about these points. For this purpose, adapter points are fixed in the visible area of the object. Then, the hidden points are touched with the MI.Probe or equipped with real-time markers. Thus it is possible to detect the positions of the hidden points. These positions are then linked to the visible adapter points. By this means, you ensure that all points of interest can be measured. Subsequently, the measurement of the whole test object is started, in which all visible and hidden measuring points are acquired at the same time. In this way, the measurement task is solved with only a small expenditure of time.
