Three-dimensional control of small wires and tubes

Hidden in almost any everyday object are tubes and wires, to a large extent, not reaching the 600 millimetres in length. Accordingly, the quality control of these components affects virtually all industries, from the automotive industry to medical technology, through the sector of electronics, appliances, construction and furniture. An example of this are shaped wires that are used to generate drills watermarks for dental clinics, while in automotive technology affects, for example, the tubes of injection systems. So far, however, it was difficult to verify the geometries of these tubes and wires as small and fine. The measurement commonly used technique is not capable of recording the individual elements of these small pieces and even the traditional arms control is often impossible.

TubeInspect HD assumes the three-dimensional control tubes and short and thin wires with diameters of 1 to 10 mm. Several geometric features, such as for example, the development of the tube, the length of the component or the distance between the extremes are checked. The range of measurement covers a volume of 500 x 420 x 200 mm. TubeInspect HD has eight digital cameras positioned near the piece with a resolution of 2 megapixels each and also uses a reference of glass, stable form and temperature, the registration of the geometries is carried out with an accuracy hitherto unknown. The accuracy of measurement to determine the tolerance of envelope is + 0.025 mm. The measurement results are available in seconds and are displayed in the 'notebook' supplied with the equipment. These results are encoded as colors on a check by calibre, providing thus a quick decision on the quality of the parts.

The space required for the HD TubeInspect is low, allowing to position the measuring without any problem on a table cell and integrate easily into an existing production environment. Werner Bösemann, Manager of Aicon, sums it up this way: "HD means 'high definition' and that is precisely what characterizes our HD TubeInspect." Through the compact structure of the measuring cell, used cameras, the reference of glass and accredited software of measurement TubeInspect reached as high resolution as required. "With our unique measurement concept we set new milestones in the control of quality of tubular components with wire small and curved".