Innovalia Metrology participates in the definition and implementation of zero-defect manufacturing strategies in leading industrial sectors in Europe.
On March 31, the European research project Z-Fact0r ended, after 42 months of development. DATAPIXEL has participated as a technology provider in a consortium led by the Hellenic Centre for Research and Technology, CERTH, and which has had other leading R&D partners in Europe, such as ATLANTIS, BRUNEL University or EPFL.
The objective of Z-Fact0r has been to create an integrated management platform for zero defect manufacturing in industrial sectors such as electronic components, carbide, or the manufacture of high-speed steel tools.
It has been carried out based on defect detection strategies in the manufactured parts, early prediction of defects based on obtaining patterns between the process and the final product, the establishment of prevention techniques to implement actions suggested by these correlations by the algorithms, and, finally, a higher level of cell management in which it is determined whether the part is repairable or not, in each case, and from where communications are established, in the form of alerts and alarms in real-time, with the plant operator to report abnormal system behaviors.
DATAPIXEL has actively participated in the project leading the developments of the defect detection subsystem, increasing the capabilities of the Optiscan non-contact sensor and accelerating the generation and analysis processes of virtual parts to respond to the needs of each of the end-users in the surface-dimensional analysis part and serve as the main source of data for the rest of the subsystems.
One of the advantages that this technology has provided to the end-users of the Z-Fact0r project, is the precise and robust measurement, which has allowed to increase the user’s knowledge about the manufactured products with respect to the design tolerances. Likewise, thanks to the maintenance of statistical control of the pieces, offered by the M3 Analytics module of the 3D measurement software, the identification of trends in the manufacturing process has been facilitated.
The DATAPIXEL solution has demonstrated its solvency to cover various scenarios, types and complex shapes of parts, and its proven ability to equalize the production cycle time makes it an ideal instrument to advance towards a new industrial paradigm that allows the orientation of new production processes towards the online measurement of 100% of manufactured parts.
In the last week of April, the results were presented to the European Commission, from which it received very positive feedback and encouraged to continue with the introduction of preventive solutions developed to guarantee better production quality in the European industry.
