ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions, though, understands how essential that protection is to not only keep its optical metrology systems safe but also protect the ZEISS reputation for quality.
ZEISS has four different optical metrology solutions that it markets to high-volume automotive manufacturing, providing fast inline measurement systems so that every part on the production line can be tested.
Traditionally, a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is used in car inspection to ensure the precision and quality of automotive components and assemblies, measuring dimensional accuracy, surface integrity, and alignment and positioning. But this is a much slower process than inline optical metrology, so it cannot check every part. And the process is fraught with hazards as large parts are moved from the manufacturing line to a measurement room.
“We’re trying to emulate what a CMM would measure with a tactile probe optical sensor — but inline and at a very high rate of speed,” says Steven Lindsey, field application engineer for ZEISS Industrial Quality Solutions. A CMM can provide very high-precision, high-accuracy measurements, but will take perhaps 30 minutes to an hour to measure one part, he adds. “While you’re doing that, you just let 400 cars go through. And they could have had the exact same problem that you just found or measured on that part that you took off the line.”
Protecting a Reputation
To resolve those issues, ZEISS integrates its optical metrology devices directly into the manufacturing line. “Now we can give customers metrology data on every single part that comes down the manufacturing line,” Lindsey says.
Taking all these measurements quickly requires attaching the optical sensors to the ends of six- or seven-axis robots, and ZEISS has learned that it cannot take those attachments lightly. The dresspacks, which provide cable management to the systems, can enhance or hurt ZEISS’ reputation.
“If we have cable failures, it makes our system look bad. When a customer buys a million-dollar system from us, it looks terrible on ZEISS to provide a dresspack that is not of high quality,” Lindsey says. “We use BizLink because the dresspack is high quality. The brackets always line up, they always work, and it reduces the installation or troubleshooting time. It just protects our cables, so our systems always stay running — and our customers are getting that metrology data to control their manufacturing process.”
There are a lot of different dresspacks on the market, Lindsey points out, including those that come from the robot manufacturers themselves. Some are integrated directly into the robot, which ZEISS does not want. “If there is a failure, which is very rare, we want the customer to be able to swap that cable out quickly and get the robot system back in production and measuring parts,” Lindsey says.
ZEISS encourages its customers to use BizLink dresspacks that are fully external to the robot. “Since we’re using an optical sensor, we have very complex cables. We run power through these high-flex cables, as well as Ethernet connection, and we can’t afford for those tiny cables to break,” Lindsey says. “The BizLink pack protects those cables from flapping around or getting caught on anything in the cell. It conceals it within its nice tube to make sure that the cable isn’t going to get caught on anything or over flex. The tube takes some of the strain off the cable as well.”
BizLink provides affordable options as well, Lindsey adds. “There are so many different product variants,” he says. “Regardless of what our customer wants to use — whatever that robot make, model, or size is — in my experience, there’s something available on the shelf, ready to go.”
Manufacturers tend to forget how big a piece of the puzzle dresspacks can be — not only the importance of the technology, but the service that’s provided from the company, Lindsey notes. “Partnering with BizLink has helped us represent ZEISS professionally,” he says. “We’re on site, we’re installing the kit, and we’re getting onto the next stage of the project.”
Learn more about complete dresspack systems. For questions on BizLink dresspacks, contact our sales team at bus_sales@bizlinktech.com.