Fault analysis and correction by applying process-integrated measurement in automated production facilities

For businesses high quality is an extremely important criterion to maintain and improve their competitiveness. To ensure the required quality standards for example in the automotive sector, sampling methods are common practice. This means taking a number of products out of the production line into a special quality measurement facility at the end of a specified timeframe. New 3D measurement approaches use optical systems, consisting of a variable number of stereo camera units, which can be integrated into a production line. They allow a highly precise measurement of 3D surfaces in a short time interval and therefore enable companies to check agreed quality of each product within the tact of their production line. These measurement systems use stereo photography and photogrammetry to create a 3D model of the scanned product, which can be compared with the belonging predefined standard 3D model. If this comparison detects deviations between the compared models the quality management system is able to identify these deviations by utilizing knowledge from a predefined failure catalogue and is thereby enabled to identify the fault's cause as well as its origin. In the next step the information about the faults origin is used to inform the relevant positions along the supply chain about the fault and its cause. It is furthermore used to supply the maintenance staff with guidelines for the necessary maintenance steps to allow a swift removal of possible defects as well as to trigger intrapreneurial behaviour. This paper gives an overview of the measuring system, as well as the concept for an automated failure detection and correction based on the data gained from the optical measurement process and the application of a rule based system.