Portal guard

200 centimeters deep, 120 centimeters wide and exactly one meter high is the gateway to the world of engines in DEUTZ AG in Cologne: defined by the X, Y and Z axes of the new portal measuring machine in incoming goods.

All supplier parts must pass through this bottleneck, which is closely guarded by quality inspectors during initial sampling. And access is only granted to flawless components. For a few months now, this has been taking a closer look, but still “processed” more quickly.

The German manufacturer of diesel, gas and electrified engines was founded in 1864. Every 90 seconds, a new DEUTZ engine leaves the Cologne-Porz plant for use in construction and agricultural machinery, material handling applications, stationary systems, and commercial and rail vehicles. As the headquarters of DEUTZ AG, Cologne-Porz is also the central research and development location for all DEUTZ engines. Since 2017, there has also been the Competence Center for Rotary Parts, i.e. crankshaft and camshaft production.

“We get virtually every component of the motors on the table,” explains Thomas Kersting, head of incoming goods inspection and quality management employee in the purchasing department. This is not about series testing or production-related testing. “Our task is primarily initial sampling, the “go” or “no” for our parts suppliers,” explains Kersting. Incoming goods inspection thus bears central gatekeeper responsibility at the access gate to DEUTZ engine production. If the greatest care was not taken to separate the wheat from the chaff quickly and early, this would have far-reaching consequences in all subsequent process steps.

“It is true that our existing portal measuring machines, as the core of our testing equipment, continued to run without problems. Nevertheless, we would probably not have been optimally prepared for the new, growing challenges with them,” explains Kersting. For example, installing a current version of measurement software would have required the installation of a new machine control system at the same time. “What would then have been about as expensive as a new small measuring machine,” Kersting suspects. Thomas Kersting found out about a coherent overall strategy for the upcoming challenges at CONTROL, among others. “I could have had plenty of suitable measuring machines,” he remembers the following selection process, “but many providers failed to look at the big picture. And to tailor an overall concept for our very specific conditions and processes. ”

Thoroughly experienced in separating chaff and wheat, Kersting and his co-decision makers finally awarded the contract to Klostermann engineering office and Vertriebsgesellschaft mbH from Remscheid, the representative for WENZEL in North Rhine-Westphalia.

Pan, rotate, touch and digitize over a wide area

“The 3D coordinate measuring machine is at the heart of the overall concept at Deutz LH 1210 by WENZEL,” explains Klostermann. “A CNC portal measuring device for switching, measuring, optical and indexed probe systems. A dynamic and high-precision machine.” With measurement ranges of 2,000 millimeters in the X axis, 1,200 millimeters in the Y axis and 1,000 millimeters in the Z axis and a load capacity of 2,300 kilograms, it easily accommodates entire motor blocks. In addition to these dimensions chosen for DEUTZ AG, the WENZEL LH 1210 is also available with measurement ranges of up to 8,000 millimeters in the Y-axis and load capacities of up to 3,250 kilograms. “With the WENZEL LH 1210, DEUTZ achieves a length measurement deviation of mPEE = 2.2 μm,” Klostermann explains. “It is equipped with a PH10m rotary/swivel head and SP25 probe from Renishaw — and also with the SHAPETRACER optical 3D line scanner from WENZEL.” “The new options offered by the rotat/swivel head and especially the line scanner naturally catapult us into completely different spheres,” says Kersting. Thanks to the movable head, even complex test procedures with measurement points in various positions can now be completed quickly without fear of collisions. “We easily save 20 to 30 percent of the time on certain components,” Kersting is certain. And: “Thanks to the 3D line scanner, we can now also digitize the component geometry over a large area and evaluate it incredibly quickly. With the previous, tactile equipment alone, this was not possible at all or was only possible with exorbitant effort. It's almost a quantum leap for us. ”

But above all, the new measurement software installed by Klostermann opens up a whole new world for engine manufacturers. “With World Cup | Quartis From WENZEL, DEUTZ now has undoubtedly the best measurement software on the market,” Klostermann is certain. And indeed: Based on the Microsoft Office Fluent user interface, WM | Quartis impresses with extremely intuitive operation and simple measurement program execution and evaluation. For example, a speed dial board to trigger stored measurement programs allows even less experienced users to carry out the test. Different hierarchical levels allow deep adjustments to the user interface — from modifying just a few parameters to full access to the measurement program. “This means that virtually all ten incoming goods employees can now work with the system regardless of their metrological qualification level,” says Thomas Kersting enthusiastically. “With several thousand measurement programs stored, this is a real blessing. And a huge boost in productivity.” “I can really say that Klostermann listened very carefully when we expressed our wishes. And then even fulfilled those that we didn't even know we had,” says Thomas Kersting, summing up the cooperation with the Bergisches engineering office and measurement technology service provider.