Measurement in Aerospace
data poses a ramp-up challenge of its own, according to Olson. “Collecting, editing, and making useful information out of massive point clouds is something Verisurf does very well,” he said. The growing use of ever more accurate, faster metrology devices also requires metrologists to simply know more. “Professionals who can do this work correctly and fast are doing well in terms of pay,” he relates.
Data, Languages, and Communication
There was a time when communicating quality data to make parts was all done on paper. While paper-based transfer of some important data has not completely disappeared—es- pecially for tolerance and GD&T in some environments—it is fair to say the age of digital factory information is here.
“With growing use of ever more accurate, faster metrology devices—scanners, trackers, portable CMM arms, optical, plus traditional CMM—also requires metrologists to simply know more.”
While this is good in many ways, as John Horst of the NIST (Gaithersburg, MD) maintained, the digital age has created its own problems. “There is a confusion of language throughout the factory,” Horst said. “As we rely on digital representations of quality measurement information, you find different software vendors providing excellent tools performing roughly the same tasks, but they commonly use different formats for consuming and producing information exchanged between those tasks.” This is especially relevant in aerospace, where complex, dynamic supply chains span multiple continents.
He said that common tasks in the measurement process include: planning for measurement by interfacing with CAD designs, creating part programs for use on metrology devices, executing the measurements on parts, generating the mea- surement results, and analyzing results via statistics. The new Quality Information Framework (QIF) standard is designed to harmonize these tasks. QIF provides freely acces- sible schemas defining the common information transferred between the tasks, said Horst. He noted that the first version of QIF defines measurement plans and measurement results. Other standards ‘incorporated’ in the framework include DMIS
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ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com | February 2014
5.2 for programming CMMs, and I++ DME as the interface between the execution software and the CMM controller. Horst said that a key element of this standard is that it is based on XML Schema. “We used XML Schema because it provides low cost of development, agility, and ease of imple- mentation for solution providers, end users, and suppliers,” he said. Since the success of any standard requires broad implementation by solution providers, convenience and low cost is vital to adoption. He said that solution providers have created demos quickly and cheaply because of the decision to use XML Schema.
Metrologists working within the Dimensional Metrology Standards Consortium (DMSC) defined QIF, and QIF version 1.0 is now an official ANSI standard,
Improvements planned for version 2.0 in calendar year 2014 include CAD-to-metrology interface. It is a top priority, since cost-effective XML exchange of product definition with various conformance levels of semantic GD&T will satisfy many CAD-to-model-based metrology-use cases. ME
Want More Information? Blum LMT
Ph: 859-344 6789
Web site:
www.blum-novotest.com Capture 3D
Ph: 714-546-7278 Web site:
www.capture3d.com
Hexagon Metrology Inc. Ph: 800-274-9433
Web site:
www.HexagonMetrology.us
National Institute of Standards and Technology Ph: 301-975-3430 Web site:
www.nist.gov
Nextec Laser Metrology LLC Ph: 440-413-7605
Web site:
www.nextec-laser.com
QIF Standards Ph: 817-461-1092
Web site:
www.qifstandards.org
Renishaw Inc. Ph: 847-286-9953
Web site:
www.renishaw.com Verisurf
Ph: 888-713-7201 Web site:
www.verisurf.com
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