Case Study: Headlight

AFI 5000P is the first system that enables fast, accurate inspection on highly complex surfaces without the need for expensive photogrammetry systems, targets, or compensations for optical deficiencies. Ever since scanning was developed, manufacturers have been trying to apply the many advantages to process-critical applications. However, scanners have either been error-prone, or required expensive and difficult compensations to their measurements. The AFI 5000P is the first measurement system that excels in accuracy, range of surfaces that can be measured, speed, ease of use, portability, scaleability and robustness to manufacturing environments.

Problem

Up to this point in time, there has been no scanning solution which offers all characteristics that manufacturing environments require due to:

• risk and lack of traceability
• CMMs too slow
• ball offset on CMMs
• optical techniques required coatings or were not traditionally accurate
• optical techniques required compensations for high-accuracy applications
• optical techniques were subject to errors and deformations due to poor interaction with the environment
• optical techniques required targets to position scans together due to overall scanner inaccuracy
• optical techniques required positioning systems which subjected them to mechanical "chatter"

Both optical and CMM devices have been well-tested by the manufacturing community, and have been proven unsuitable for many applications. Hence, they require compromises. For example, the optical approaches require targets or photogrammetry systems to achieve accuracy, which result in holes in the data, are time-consuming and are generally used to compensate for scanner inaccuracies. Thus, at the expense of speed, component manufacturers and assemblers have been compromising their inspection processes with slower, more manual CMMs which deliver far less data, or with optical systems with their associated limitations.

Solution

The AFI 5000P was adopted to measure a clear polycarbonate automotive headlight with no photogrammetry or error compensations. Test conditions were:

• less than 4 minutes per headlight
• full data coverage on all surfaces and datums
• no targeting on the component was permitted
• data must be accurate and repeatable to within required tolerances
• system must be rugged for manufacturing environments
• NIST traceable
• no loss of performance in manufacturing environments
• 100% automated
• resistant to thermal, vibration, shock, and humidity perturbations

The headlight was placed in the AFI 5000P's field of view. The AFI 5000P measured the entire headlight surface, and multiple views of the headlight were accurately merged without the use of targets. All data was inspected through geometric and statistical analyses.

Conclusion

This process addressed all requirements of a total headlight inspection system capable of quickly verifying dimensions in a rapid manufacturing environment. Because the AFI 5000P can measure headlight-sized objects up to full-size production line vehicles (no sprays or coatings required), it meets the "total solution" that automotive manufacturers require.

The AFI 5000P was the only system that met all customer requirements by delivering:

• accurate data
• uncorrupted data, regardless of surface properties
• fast acquisition
• total inspection
• scaleable systems for large and small components
• no targeting methods required for either merging, or optical distortion correction
• scaleable systems for large and small components
• suitable for demanding manufacturing environments
• NIST traceable