Intelligent solutions for coordinate measurement technology

Digitalization is progressing ever faster and has an extraordinary impact on companies' quality management. However, there is often still a lack of a developed strategy and concrete implementation in practice. Especially in times of digital transformation, Dr. Heike Wenzel, managing partner of the WENZEL Group, sees measurement technology not only as important and interesting, but also as a focal point. In an interview, she talks about the future role of three-dimensional coordinate measurement technology in the new era of intelligent factories and seamlessly integrated manufacturing processes.

‍

The age of intelligent manufacturing has arrived. How do you think the role of the coordinate measuring machine will change as manufacturing adapts to Quality 4.0?

In our opinion, intelligent manufacturing is characterized primarily by the flexible use of all available resources and the extended use of all available data for internal and external communication. As one of the quality leaders in the production of flexible and highly accurate coordinate measuring machines WENZEL feels very comfortable in the area of Quality 4.0 and sees increasing importance. Our systems help our customers with incoming goods inspection, directly in production or in measurement rooms.

We ensure process stability and enable every level of quality assurance, from simple good/bad testing to deeper analysis of form and position tolerances. WENZEL KMGs support initial sample testing, SPC control, fast measurement cycles, complete part analysis by scanning the entire workpieces and provide comparative data to CAD models. We see many opportunities as a result of the rise of intelligent manufacturing, which requires greater flexibility of all processes, machines and employees involved. Our CMM solutions as universal measurement systems support these flexibility requirements.

‍

Measurement sensors have evolved from tactile to optical technology in the last ten years. Do you see that this trend will accelerate in the future and how is WENZEL adapting its products to the visual change?

In recent years, optical measurement sensors have become established for coordinate measurement technology applications and are becoming increasingly important. The share that tactile measurement technology still has today and, in our opinion, will continue to play in the future should not be underestimated. At WENZEL, we are broadly positioned to offer our customers multi-sensor measuring devices that meet their specific requirements. We offer 100% optical solutions such as our mScan handheld scanner or our CORE system, which is equipped with a proprietary white light sensor and therefore measures contactlessly and very quickly.

The life cycle of a WENZEL KMG can easily span 20-30 years. That's why we focus on offering a wide range of optical sensors for our devices. This enables our customers to switch to optical solutions when they deem it necessary. In addition to our own sensors, we work with specialists such as Nikon and Creon to offer our customers a wide range of products. But we also see that although many customers want to measure very quickly or need a high data density - optical systems are ideal for this - they cannot do without accuracy either. With the 5-axis measurement system REVO of Renishaw WENZEL offers an excellent tool for greater productivity, which can measure extremely quickly and with high data density and accuracy in one solution.

‍What are the technological limits of the current CMMs that need to be addressed so that the CMM can fulfill its role in the data-driven factories of the future?

I don't see any technological limits at the moment, but rather too many stand-alone solutions in terms of data exchange and M2M (machine-to-machine) communication. We need open standards, we need standards that are implemented by all partners in the manufacturing data chain to exchange data quickly and securely, but above all, we need a comparable interpretation of the available data. WENZEL, together with many other partners, is working with the VDMA on an industry standard based on OPC AND OTHERS, which is certainly a first step. These efforts will only really bear fruit and stand out when industry no longer allows manufacturer standards to be enforced instead of open standards.

Computer tomography is becoming increasingly important for the non-destructive testing and dimensional control of parts and assemblies. Do you see that computed tomography start to undermine the role of traditional CMMs? Is CT technology more suitable for specific industries? Do you see that inline CT testing is becoming more and more popular?
Computer tomography has arrived in measurement technology! It's a good thing, and it's been a long journey. WENZEL is primarily pleased with the acceptance of industrial 3D CT applications in the manufacturing world, as we have been working in this area since 2008 and have come a long way. Our experience has taught us that CTs will largely not replace traditional CMMs, but will specifically complement them; the focus of the measurement is on internal structures where a classic CMM cannot be used at all. In some areas — particularly in inline measurement technology — CT technology competes with optical measuring cells. In the next few years, it will become apparent in which applications it will prevail. CTs are increasingly being used in all industries, but currently the focus is certainly on testing plastics, multi-material composites, mission-critical components in aerospace, medical technology, and parts manufactured using additive manufacturing processes.

CMMs with horizontal arms were once the “workhorse” of sheet metal testing in the automotive industry. Wearable arms were the first to challenge horizontal CMMing, and in recent years, the 6-axis robot with optical scanning has made another impact. What role do you think Horizontalarm-KMG will play over the next ten years?
There have been many changes in the area of sheet metal testing in the automotive industry in recent years. And yes, many different technologies have developed and called classic horizontal measuring arms into question. We are currently seeing a significant increase in demand for horizontal arm CMMs. This current demand comes both from our traditional customers in this sector, but above all from the electric car development and production sector, which shows us that our modern horizontal CMMs will continue to have a place in the future. WENZEL horizontal arm measuring devices often have combinations of tactile and optical sensors and offer significant accuracy and long-term stability advantages over robot-based solutions. We don't really see portable arms as competitors; a portable arm is very suitable for quick and flexible use, but for repeatable verification in series production, there are too many sources of error to rely exclusively on the data from the portable measuring arm.

WENZEL recently returned to the gear measurement technology market and introduced a new range of products and software solutions. What was the driving force behind this business initiative?

The abandonment of the cogwheel business was a concession made when dividing up the company among family members. However, WENZEL remained active on the market as a system supplier for Liebherr transmission technology. Strategically, we never wanted to withdraw from this market, and I'm delighted that we're back. WENZEL now has a completely renewed hardware and software solution. We are convinced that with our fully integrated and coordinated hardware and software solution, we have an excellent solution for today's transmission market. Another motivation was the fact that we can measure and evaluate gears with our entire product portfolio. WENZEL is the only manufacturer that can analyze gears not only on a special gear testing device, but also on classic CMMs with or without a turntable and using a computer tomograph.
I am proud that with our new GT series, we are not only using the WM | Gear and WM | Gear Analyzer gearing software, but also our universal WM | Quartis measurement software to measure other components. A huge advantage for our customers!

‍
Technically speaking, you could therefore say that WENZEL Gear measuring devices The GT series is the first fully certified 3D measurement system for rotationally symmetrical parts. This is another example of how we are trying to create added value for our customers, either through horizontal integration — e.g. gearing analysis on all types of machines — or through vertical integration — combining gearing and true CMM capabilities on a gearing tester. And the same software platform is used for all solutions.

‍

In addition to its portfolio of standard catalog products, WENZEL is able to provide tailor-made measurement solutions. Do you see that the trend towards customer-specific measurement solutions is increasing as measurement systems are increasingly integrated into manufacturing?

Yes, we feel that every day, and we also implement many very exciting individual projects here. Especially in manufacturing, the measurement solutions must be synchronized with the processing machines in such a way that the size of the measurement volume matches the components, the measurement time matches the production cycle time and, as required, we seamlessly integrate our machines into the customer's automation concept. With our very individual options for classic CMMs, but also with our special machines for the warehouse sector (SF series), WENZEL always finds a suitable answer to customer requirements.
Overall, our high level of vertical integration proves to be a major advantage. We are able to implement flexible solutions better than most of our competitors and are also not affected by supply bottlenecks, as we produce many parts ourselves, which currently has a very positive effect on delivery times.

We're all working hard to reduce our environmental footprint. WENZEL is one of the few CMM manufacturers who continue the tradition of manufacturing CMMs from granite. How do you rate the CO2 footprint of a granite CMM compared to its aluminum-structured counterpart?

To be honest, we made the decision to build with granite long before the carbon footprint debate. We are convinced — and our developers regularly check this with complex analyses — that Granit currently offers the best starting point for flexible, high-precision CMMing. The complex processing process and the process of manual lapping at WENZEL ensures a very high and, above all, long-lasting basic accuracy of our devices. But now to the CO2 footprint: Of course, the mining and transportation of granite also causes CO2 emissions, which is not least why we use local granite from there in our production in China, which is geared towards the Asian market.

But I think it's undeniable that KMGs with aluminum structures leave a much larger carbon footprint than our KMGs. Die Overall design of our machines and the accuracy of our lapped guides enable our machines to work with significantly reduced air gaps and therefore have lower air consumption — certainly a consideration for customers who are looking for economical systems that also help them save energy. Overall, this will certainly be an exciting discussion on the market in the coming years, when measurement technology customers must take into account the effects of the materials used, energy and resource consumption and the machines in their overall balance sheet. We feel we are very well positioned in this regard.

‍

WENZEL appears to be unique, as it is one of the few globally active CMM companies that has remained a private family business. What are the key market challenges that you will have to face as CEO when the pandemic era in manufacturing is over?

I have WENZEL from my father Werner Wenzel taken over. My father was a passionate entrepreneur who always wanted only one thing: to build the best quality measuring devices in the world and thus create a long-term partnership with customers. These values — lasting quality and partnership — mean that we can't always offer the cheapest machines, but when you look at the total cost of ownership (TCO), you can see that it's also worthwhile for WENZEL's customers.

At WENZEL, we remain true to this passion and, especially as a family company with a very long tenure in management and highly qualified employees, we are very successful in transmitting these values to all of our more than 500 employees worldwide; building on this DNA and realizing quality together. The challenge after Corona will be to continue our successful journey and ensure that we reach all existing and new potential customers in a way that enables us to demonstrate the special value of the KMGs built by WENZEL and all other product lines.

Markets are changing, of course. They are changing ever faster and becoming more digital. As a medium-sized company, we are faster and more flexible here than major competitors. We are looking forward to the next few years and hope that one day we will be with you, the reader of this interview, get in touch can to demonstrate our system in practice.

‍