Manufacturing measurement technology in the smart factory

As Pump manufacturer Wilo When planning its sustainable and digital smart factory, quality assurance has strategically repositioned itself: Today, thanks to production measurement technology supplied by Klostermann, it acts preventively — and production waste dropped to zero.

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At 30 m long, it cannot be overlooked at Wilopark, the headquarters of the Wilo Group in Dortmund: The H2Powerplant hydrogen plant, which converts electricity generated from sun, wind and water into green hydrogen using electrolysis. 520 kg of hydrogen can be stored by the system solution that the company installed as a pilot plant last year — and now also serves customers as a basis for autonomous, decentralized and regenerative energy supply network offers. “Sustainability has always been practiced throughout the company. For us, sustainability and quality management are the responsibility of one department, because both only work holistically,” explains Tim Schirmers, Plant Quality Manager Dortmund at Wilo. “On the product side, this starts with development and continues through production to recycling. In addition, the tolerances of the individual components over the entire value stream — regardless of whether they are electronic components, metal or plastic components — are becoming ever tighter so that pumps and pump systems ultimately achieve higher energy efficiency. ”

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Schirmers continues: “As a result, there was no question for us that we wanted to focus quality management and measurement technology completely towards sustainability and digitization when planning the new smart factory. The new factory has opened up completely new opportunities for us: away from pure reaction to preventive quality assurance and towards reliability management. ”

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Quality management was therefore involved early on in the Smart Factory planning and developed a new strategy that makes use of digitization: Measurement technology is now also moving to the line. Tolerances are measured by production employees. All measuring devices — both in the measurement room and in production — send their data to central servers or to the Wilo cloud. The goal: This makes it clear at an early stage when production processes are getting out of hand. Once this strategy was in place, Schirmers' team started implementing it: “In the past, we have already worked in partnership with Klostermann worked together and the company was able to win the tender,” says Schirmers.

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The Remscheid-based full-service provider of 3D measurement technology delivered the first measuring machine to Wilo more than 30 years ago; and recently, it even started up its 1000th new machine at Wilo. “The proximity to Klostermann is very helpful for us: When we need help — whether with implementations, training, creating programs, repairs, measuring devices or even payroll measurement tasks — Klostermann's experts are always on hand quickly. They even help out on site in case of unforeseen staff shortages. This overall package makes collaboration very efficient,” says Schirmers. “In addition, Klostermann has developed a deep understanding of our requirements and processes over the years. ”

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It was important for Schirmers to closely integrate the measurement technology in the Smart Factory with the measurement technology in the measurement room. This meant that the new measuring devices for the shop floor should run under WM Quartis, Wenzel's measurement software. Because Wilo has also relied on Wenzel for a long time in the measurement room. Wilo therefore opted for coordinate measuring machines from the manufacturer from Wiesthal. The choice was made for three SF 55s, designed for the direct production environment. “We also wanted three Wenzel coordinate measuring machines on the shop floor to ensure consistency and thus comparability of the data,” says Schirmers. “We can therefore send the data from the measurement room, i.e. measurement data and measurement programs, to the machines right away in production. Standardization also has the advantage that the manufacturing worker can move on to another coordinate measuring machine in no time at a time when we have a peak. ”

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Flexible clamping systems from Witte have been implemented as measuring devices: “Now the worker inserts a component, selects a measurement program at the push of a button — and the machine does what it should do. And we receive measurement and test data of consistent quality,” explains Schirmers.

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Klostermann also provided a further boost in Wilo's manufacturing measurement technology by integrating Renishaw's Equator testing device into the measurement technology landscape: “We had already purchased two equators directly from Renishaw for workpiece testing, but did not really know how to exploit their potential,” recalls Schirmers. “As part of the planning for the Smart Factory, Klostermann gave us the idea of running the Equator with WM Quartis instead of using Renishaw software. This means that we were able to further standardize here as well. For us, this was virtually the game changer, because now we can define the measurement points — i.e. shape and position tolerances — from the measurement room, which should be checked with the equator with regard to IO/NIO. To do this, the worker draws a fixed sample from the line and tests it with the Equator; this takes just three minutes. “Based on these advantages, Wilo then tendered three more Equators.

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Before the new measurement concept was implemented, Klostermann thoroughly tested the situation on its own measuring machines in four series of tests at its premises in Remscheid. Questions such as: Can the concept be implemented at all? Will we also be able to carry out a measurement system analysis (MSA) so that the values are reliable and reproducible?

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Stored control cards now signal to workers in the Smart Factory whether the tolerances of components are running away via the interface of the WM Quartis measurement software on Wenzel's coordinate measuring machines and via Renishaw testing devices. If action is not taken in time in production, Schirmers' team will be informed by email via several built-in escalation cascades. Schirmers: “As a result of trends, we are always one step ahead and can decide: Does a manufacturing machine need to be corrected? Does maintenance have to be carried out? In the past, however, we could only react if NIO components already existed. ”

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The digital flow of information on measurement and test results involves not only quality assurance, but also the production manager and engineering, who can adapt the design of components in the event of frequent problems. Colleagues at other Wilo plants, for whom the Dortmund site, as a service provider, also has access to the quality data via the cloud.

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“Tolerances are getting tighter, quantities are increasing. Today, it is paying off that we have become faster and more effective in measurement and testing technology by integrating this into manufacturing processes,” summarizes Schirmers. “As a result, we have increased product quality, increased the stability of production processes and reduced the waste that we sent to our recycling center by 50%. Of course, this contributes to our sustainability strategy, because due to close process monitoring using measurement technology, we can correct production processes much more quickly, for example in CNC processing or injection molding. Our key figures prove this: We have to scrap less, recycle less and we achieve higher customer satisfaction. ”

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Other Wilo plants are now also interested in the Smart Factory's QM concept: colleagues at the new high-tech factory in Changzhou, China, have already signaled their interest in the solution. And at Wilopark in Dortmund, they are already working on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to evaluate measurement and test results, with the help of students from TU Dortmund. Schirmers: “The initial tests were very promising. ”

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Text: Sabine Koll/Published in Quality Engineering 04/2023

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