Marposs is a leading global supplier of precision metrology equipment for shop-floor inspection, measurement, and process control solutions, which help to improve quality and reduce costs in manufacturing.

Marposs can supply products ranging from an individual gaging component to turnkey machines or fully automated lines to address customer needs worldwide, supplying the metrology equipment associated with non-destructive testing, leak testing, and a wide variety of sensors and machine tool controls.

The company makes equipment capable of measuring to the thousandth of a millimeter and more. Plus, these tasks can be performed in a workshop environment along the production line, and on any machine tool instead of in a metrology lab.

Marposs serves a wide variety of industries including machine tool, automotive, aerospace, medical, and others, where the company has a hand in supplying gaging and testing equipment for many types of applications.

Aerospace
Marposs has many years of experience in the design and manufacture of tooling, fixtures, machine monitoring systems, and automatic inspection machines that perform checks on specific parts used in aeronautics and space sectors. Marposs systems are used for assembly, final inspection, and MRO of almost every modern aircraft engine manufactured. Throughout the last few decades, we have supplied thousands of gaging/tools systems to customers worldwide; the most of any gage manufacturer in the world.

Automotive
For the automotive and transportation industries, Marposs provides a full depth of gaging and measurement solutions for components that are used in engines (combustion and battery-powered), transmissions, car body and chassis, automotive glass, lighting, and more.

Solutions can vary from standardized components to tailor-made systems built to fulfill customer specifications. Standard solutions encompass in-process and post-process applications for machine tools, hand-held gages to check diameters and simple geometries, or gaging components to build gaging stations.

Our dedicated solutions include benches and machines for manual, semiautomatic, or fully automatic inspection of multiple parameters; equipment for non-destructive testing based on eddy current technology; and equipment for leak testing, such as battery components.

Medical
Within this industry, it is typical to require inspection of 100% of component production. Marposs has solutions for measuring tubes, orthopedic joints, medical sets, and more, as well as equipment used for dialysis or assisted breathing.

We offer several types of leak testing technologies for applications such as bags for liquids (blood, feeding, pharma solutions) and bottles. In addition to typical leak or flow tests, volume and resistance (burst tests) are checked with functional and destructive tests. Sealed products such as single dose, are commonly tested by interception, in bell or in vacuum.

In all we do, Marposs adheres to quality principles and is committed to the continuous improvement of procedures and methods, as well as the adoption of new methods most suitable for the analysis, engineering, production, control, and assistance of all our products and services.

Marposs’ expertise enables our customers to reach their goals of product quality, efficiency, flexibility, productivity, reliability, and maintainability of the manufacturing process, regardless of their company size.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.marposs.com

Robotic leak testing in the automotive industry is growing with increases expected throughout the next 5 years, thanks to increased production throughput and inspection reliability, and improved product quality. Only 5% of automotive plants currently have robotic leak-detection systems, but that number will climb to 20% or more by 2024.

How companies leak test is as important as the equipment used. A properly installed robotic station can make the difference between stellar product quality and an expensive exercise in futility. To set up robotic testing that eliminates costly human error for repetitive tests, attention to detail is critical. Five tips could help companies avoid pitfalls.

1. Meet requirements

When leak testing, have the equipment, including a high-flow leak detector and a robotic arm (properly programmed with the right instructions) working at an appropriate scanning speed. Determining whether a process will be static or dynamic dictates the exact equipment needed.

Static testing is suitable if you know where leaks typically occur on a part or assembly, for example, at certain joints. In this case, the robot arm may move at high speed before and after the measuring process but stay static during measurement. A dynamic robotic sniffer test operating at an appropriate speed is best when checking a larger surface of a component for leaks. Dynamic sniffing saves time when physically handling the part rather than during sniffing.

With dynamic robotic sniffer leak detection, the sniffer probe should move over the test piece as slowly as the cycle time of the production line will allow to provide the best test reliability, since reliability of tests increase as the probe’s speed falls. More important than speed is the distance between the probe and the surface of the part being inspected. Shorter test distances produce more accurate results.

2. Avoid crosswinds

This warning applies to robotic leak testing or driving a panel truck. Poorly timed crosswinds can make driving erratic, and similarly, a draft of air during sniffer leak detection, even from a distance, can mar results.

For best results, enclose the test area. Typically, robotic stations are enclosed in cages to ensure worker safety, so substituting acrylic glass for mesh cages would protect employees and shield the test area from air movement caused by heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems or passing forklifts. In static testing, working with clam shells at the tip of the robotic arm can protect joints being tested from drafts.

3. Calibrate carefully, regularly

Calibrate systems and check frequently – typically once per shift. Guide the sniffer tip to a reference leak of a defined size, which will always cause the same leakage rate. If the system fails to determine the exact reference leakage rate, its calibration is no longer precise, and a new calibration factor must be used. The external calibration function of the sniffer leak detector can automatically determine this using the reference leak. The new calibration factor usually will differ from the old one only by a few percentage points.

4. Watch your back(ground)

The most common cause of false positive test readings for leak testing is high background concentrations of test gas. Avoid false positives by reducing background sources:

• Evacuate test parts before, after each test
• Monitor tracer-gas fill processes to ensure correct part connection
• Locate test gas supply cylinders away from test station, avoiding cylinder-change mishaps that could affect the entire station
• Thoroughly inspect gas supply lines for leaks, an obvious source of excessive underground concentration
• Prevent test-gas accumulation to ensure gradual, even test enclosure air exchange; consider replacing enclosed volume with fresh air once a minute
• Locate enclosure fresh air supply away from test gas exhaust

5. Avoid forming gas cross contamination

Forming gas (95% nitrogen/5% hydrogen) often is used as an inexpensive test gas. Industrial environments often contain other sources of hydrogen not always obvious to testers – lead-acid battery charging stations where hydrogen is a byproduct and forklift truck exhaust gases.

Inficon

About the author: Thomas Parker is North American automotive sales manager for Inficon. He can be reached at thomas.parker@inficon.com.

Metrology solutions typically support industrial quality control (QC), verifying build processes and assuring customers that manufactured products meet specifications. However, scanning and imaging technologies used to inspect parts can play a major role in design and engineering.

Exact Metrology, an inspection services company, discusses how various scanning technologies – white-light systems, laser scanners, structured-light scanners – allow users to gather critical information needed for complex design challenges.

Exact Metrology Inc.

Airfoil scan procedures

Cross-section portions of airplane wings or turbine blades are critical aerospace structures with stringent quality requirements. Generating usable data from high-accuracy scans is critical in part design and manufacturing.

Scans can occur at the manufacturer’s facility with a mobile unit or at an Exact Metrology office. Airfoils typically require full documentation with photos, measurements, and all surface markings or serial numbers recorded prior to high-definition scanning.

Setup – A thin SKD-S2 Magnaflux coating is applied to the blade’s reflective surface for the second phase of a crack-checking process (Phase 1 dye penetration is not typically used).

A fixture and targets (placed using magnets on either side of the airfoil) constrain data during scanning. The fixture holds the airfoil in place for hands-free part-data capture. A manual or automatic turntable can also enhance part scanning and registration access.

Scanning – The part is positioned on the rotating table or stationary marble top and repeatedly scanned from multiple perspectives. Known geometric objects are often placed nearby for quality assurance and validation. The Breuckmann Stereo 3D scanning system uses a halogen, structured white-light projection system with dual 6.6-megapixel (MP) cameras.

Registration – Targeting uses an automated fitting of point clouds, based upon three common positions on the part or scene. Software simplifies registration and analyzes every point with overlaps and runs a best-fit algorithm to find the best alignment.

Validation – Verify automated methods with targeting and adding known geometric shapes. All scans are documented with notes, computer logging, and digital photos accompanying the recorded scan setup within the software.

Modeling – With data gathered, point cloud or data sets can be worked. The first step is to triangulate or mesh points together. Algorithms intelligently remove points from the network, decimating overlapping or redundant data points. This mesh is further manipulated by reducing triangles and points along flatter areas and retaining more triangles in curved and complex areas. This poly mesh can now be exported as a complete STL file or similar format.

Surfacing – Fitting non-uniform rational basis spline (NURBS) imaging models to the point cloud can be time-consuming. A surface is draped over the mesh and smoothed to reflect the actual part. The model is then ready for various formats, depending on client needs and limitations of existing conversion tools. A final 3D solid model can be provided as a dumb solid without parametry or history tree as an imported object.

Parametric modeling – A parametric model has all dimensional relationships within the CAD, allowing manipulation and fine-tuning without altering part geometry. The adjustable Pro/Engineer CAD model with known geometry possesses a design history.

Automotive resto-mod

Johan Kars, inventor of a catalytic abatement system for organic solvent emissions, is also an accomplished pilot and overall helpful guy: having reengineered and improved the waffle irons for his friend’s restaurant.

And it’s only natural, with a name like Kars, that he’d become a collector of classic automobiles.

After acquiring a 1951 Bentley MK VI H.J. Mulliner Lightweight Saloon Coupe, Kars sought to restore the bumper of the vehicle, which had been damaged in 1969 during a bad parking attempt. Only seven of these vehicles were made, so bumpers for the car are scarce.

Exact Metrology non-contact scanners were able to capture precise data about the existing bumper and vehicle rear-end, allowing the Bentley’s bumper to be re-manufactured to exact 1951 specifications.

The car was originally exhibited on the H.J. Mulliner stand at the Earl’s Court Motor Show in October 1951. Being a MD series, it is one of the first of the 4.5L versions of the car, which were introduced that year. The coachwork is a rare 2-door aluminum body with a hood that stretched an extra 3", an enhancement to the classic, flowing lines.

These Bentleys were in high demand and went all over the world. Original owners of the seven cars included: Princess Faiza Rauf of Egypt, French diplomat Baron Jules de Koenigswarter (while stationed in Mexico), and automotive scion Henry Ford II.

Kars’ vehicle was commissioned by Magnus S. Swenson, who resided on Wall Street in New York, and was delivered in November 1951. In 1953, the car was sold to Martin Block, a radio host, living in New Jersey, who passed away in 1967. The car was then driven on occasion by Block’s mistress, until her son locked the car in a garage in 1969, following the parking attempt that created a repair opportunity for Exact Metrology. A rudimentary repair was done to the rear fenders, but some damage remained.

Seeking to restore his precious purchase, Kars contacted Exact Metrology. Technicians arrived on-site with the portable NDI Scan System, a handheld laser scanner ideal for fast, non-contact digitization of physical components. The scanning technician quickly and accurately collected 3D data about the Bentley’s rear end and existing fenders.

NDI Scan System technicians oriented the ScanTRAK in 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF) without concerns of beam breakage and no mechanical restrictions. The system’s large measurement volume eliminates the need for time-consuming data capture.

With data collected, Exact professionals began modeling the parts at their offices. Geomagic Studio 3D Reverse Engineering Software converts 3D scan data into CAD models, allowing Exact to create a 3D model of the Bentley’s fender. Kars can use the model to recreate the damaged fender, a part out of production since 1951, restoring the rare Bentley to its as-built form.

Customized kneepads

Metrology's exact most rewarding project was to help a 9-year-old Tieshawn, a boy born with spina bifida, a spinal cord birth defect. Tieshawn loves to move, typically by walking on his kneecaps, which can cause painful callouses. Traditional kneepads weren’t designed for Tieshawn’s needs and slipped off quickly.

Cincinnati, Ohio-area based May We Help, betters the lives of people with special needs by partnering with skilled partners. It began working with Tieshawn’s family and therapists to find a better solution. It partnered with rapid-prototyping company Bastech, which had created similar kneepads for spelunkers (cave explorers). First, Bastech needed a very accurate understanding of how Tieshawn’s knees moved and were shaped.

Exact Metrology joined the effort, using Artec 3D Scanners to measure Tieshawn’s knees in his own bedroom in less than 30 minutes. The Artec scanner captures up to 2 million points of data a second with 3D point accuracy up to 0.1mm, using a handheld device that weighs less than 2 lb.

Popular for plastic surgery, orthopedics, post-trauma care, and dietology, the light scanners can generate 3D images of a single appendage or the entire human body.

With a better understanding of Tieshawn’s biomechanics, Bastech designers customized kneepads to provide more comfortable, safer movement.

R obots that can climb on vertical or upside-down conductive surfaces, such as the inside walls of commercial jet engines, could explore complex spaces in three dimensions instead of moving back and forth on a flat surface. The Harvard Ambulatory Micro-Robot with Electroadhesion (HAMR-E) is such a micro-robot with electroadhesive foot pads, origami ankle joints, and a specially engineered walking gait.

It was developed by researchers at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

“They could one day enable non-invasive inspection of hard-to-reach areas of large machines, saving companies time and money and making those machines safer,” notes Sébastien de Rivaz, a former Research Fellow at the Wyss Institute and SEAS who now works at Apple.

HAMR-E was developed in response to a challenge issued to the Harvard Microrobotics Lab by Rolls-Royce to design and build an army of micro-robots capable of climbing inside parts of its jet engines that are inaccessible to workers. Existing climbing robots can tackle vertical surfaces but experience problems when trying to climb upside-down, as they require a large amount of adhesive force to prevent them from falling.

The team based HAMR-E on one of its existing micro-robots, HAMR, whose four legs enable it to walk on flat surfaces and swim through water. While the basic design of HAMR-E is similar to HAMR, scientists had to solve a series of challenges to get HAMR-E to successfully stick to and traverse the vertical, inverted, and curved surfaces it would encounter in a jet engine.

First, they needed to create adhesive foot pads that would keep the robot attached to the surface even when upside-down, but also release to allow the robot to walk by lifting and placing its feet. The pads consist of a polyimide-insulated copper electrode, enabling generation of electrostatic forces between the pads and the underlying conductive surface. The foot pads are released and re-engaged by switching the electric field on and off, operating at a voltage similar to that required to move the robot’s legs. The electroadhesive foot pads can generate shear forces of 5.56g and normal forces of 6.20g – more than enough to keep the 1.48g robot from sliding down or falling off surfaces. In addition to providing high adhesive forces, the pads were designed to flex, allowing climbing on curved or uneven surfaces.

The scientists also created new ankle joints for HAMR-E that can rotate in three dimensions to compensate for rotations of its legs as it walks, so it can maintain orientation on its climbing surface. The joints were manufactured out of layered fiberglass and polyimide and folded into an origami-like structure allowing the ankles of all the legs to rotate freely and passively align with the terrain as HAMR-E climbs.

Finally, researchers created a special walking pattern for HAMR-E, as it needs to have three foot pads touching a vertical or inverted surface at all times to prevent a fall or slide. One foot releases from the surface, swings forward, and reattaches while the remaining three stay attached to the surface. At the same time, a small amount of torque is applied by the foot diagonally across from the lifted foot to keep the robot from moving away from the climbing surface during the leg-swinging phase. This process is repeated for the other three legs to create a full walking cycle, synchronized with the pattern of electric field switching on each foot.

When testing HAMR-E on vertical and inverted surfaces, it was able to achieve more than 100 steps in a row without detaching. It walked at speeds comparable to other small climbing robots on inverted surfaces, slightly slower than other climbing robots on vertical surfaces, and was significantly faster than other robots on horizontal surfaces. It is also able to perform 180° turns on horizontal surfaces.

HAMR-E also successfully maneuvered around a curved, inverted section of a jet engine while staying attached, and its passive ankle joints and adhesive foot pads were able to accommodate the rough, uneven features of the engine surface simply by increasing the electroadhesion voltage.

The team is continuing to refine HAMR-E, planning to incorporate sensors into its legs to detect and compensate for detached foot pads, which will help prevent it from falling. HAMR-E’s payload capacity is also greater than its own weight, opening the possibility of carrying a power supply, other electronics, and sensors to inspect various environments. Researchers are also exploring options for using HAMR-E on non-conductive surfaces.

Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering

John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS)

Support for this research was contributed by the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, Rolls-Royce, and the U.S. Army Research Office.