Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023 - 22

Enhancing digital platforms with CT data analysis
AI and machine learning are powerful techniques for labeling, classifying quality data, localizing problems and segmenting defects for identification
and action during automated CT inspection.
TE Connectivity gains critical insights using Volume Graphics software
throughout design, simulation and manufacturing.
by Miles Parker
A
s impressive as interconnected digital-platform benefits are
for traditional CAD/CAE/CAM disciplines, computed tomography
(CT) data analysis for quality inspection has
greatly expanded its reach and purpose within today's
growing digital landscape. CT data-analysis software is making the
central tools of design, simulation and manufacturing - normally
used well upstream of it - even better in their roles.
The establishment of Model-Based Definition (MBD) is increasingly
guiding engineering beyond drawings and hybrid approaches. The move
away from manual readings of data to MBD creates deeper and wider
information threads throughout product development, from Product
Manufacturing Information (PMI) files to machines and other programs.
It's not just geometric annotations and manufacturing instructions
that travel on digital threads. Companies are creating information
loops to design, simulation and virtual testing that improve accuracy,
conformance to specifications and shorten time-to-production. These
new development cycles are reinforcing a 40-year trend toward earlier
and earlier decision making and less late-stage, at-production
validation of products and methods of manufacture.
Benchmark for quality inspection
It makes sense that a company like TE Connectivity, which is engaged
in connectivity and sensing solutions for EVs, aircraft, digitalintelligent
factories and more, would invest in MBD and advanced
inspection methods. That " engineered " path brings to bear the advantages
of ISO Geometric Product Specification (GPS) standards
and virtual metrology against the limits of using traditional design
workflows. Those workflows use drawings, 2D and 3D-digital systems
and, while favorably less complex than MBD, can often lose information
during model conversions and require high-effort, manual programming
when creating quality-measurement programs.
" GPS is the only way to build true model-based systems and exact
mathematical definitions, " said Alexander Stokowski, development
director at TE Connectivity. Stokowski, a certified Six Sigma Black
Belt and lecturer for measurement technology and GPS at the
Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW), has
22 December 2023
been involved for a decade in digital transformation.
" GPS is important in deriving the center axis of the
part, getting a 90-degree measurement direction, detecting
points - and if you are not precise in a mathematical
way on this you can't realistically create, let
alone automate, a measurement system. "
For Stokowski and TE Connectivity, the journey toward
MBD and GPS conformance and integration with
CT data analysis began in the automotive-products
division around 2012 with the first pilot projects. " By
the end of 2013, two years after we began, we more or
less made the decision to bring everything that was
new-product development into the CT measurement
environment - aiming towards a 100 percent ratio, "
Stokowski said.
This decision, made early in the industry implementation
of new ISO standards, sparked a close collaboration
between PTC (Creo), TE Connectivity and
Volume Graphics to create an integration around fresh
ISO-compliant GPS capabilities.
In addition, TE Connectivity's principal engineer of
molding simulation, Patrick Bertram, felt that inclusion
of mold simulation simultaneous to the quality process
was key to accelerating innovation cycles. Bertram then
convinced suppliers Volume Graphics (VG) and SIMCON
to create an automated interface between the measurement
and simulation-optimization software sets.
The full, multi-vendor integration allowed for greater
use of model-based annotations and PMI, leading to a
looping of virtual test and real-world measurement
results back to design and FEA-mold simulation, and
forward to prototyping, First Article Inspection (FAI)
and production.
" We surprised people by implementing standards well
before their final release dates, " Stokowski said. " Why
wait 3-5 years when the directions, such as how to display
3D annotations, are made clear in the ISO drafts? "
TRUCK & OFF-HIGHWAY ENGINEERING
VOLUME GRAPHICS

Truck & Off-Highway Engineering - December 2023

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