A Virtual Fit: Creaform and Auto Manufacturing
February 7, 2013

A Virtual Fit: Creaform and Auto Manufacturing

Volkswagen invests in mobile virtual measurement room from Creaform.

LÉVIS, QUÉBEC – The Plastics business field (BF) of major automotive manufacturer Volkswagen Group has fitted its plant in Wolfsburg, Germany, with a virtual measurement room equipped with Creaform measurement technologies, as part of a pilot project.

Launched in May 2012, the C-Link functionality allows users to set up virtual measurement rooms in any location and to inspect complex setups, fixtures, tools or prototypes quickly and easily through probing or 3D scanning. The integrated TRUaccuracy technology guarantees high accuracy, regardless of instabilities, vibrations or thermal variations in the environment.

Volkswagen Group’s Plastics BF has chosen to use a pilot for the tactile measuring version and intends to use the virtual measurement room in the future for on-line measurements of the cockpit and front-end of the new Golf series vehicles. They plan to measure individual parts on the production line, which moves 4 meters forward within 56 seconds. In those 56 seconds, the cockpit and the front end will be probe-inspected with the HandyPROBE arm-free CMM. To this end, two pairs of C-Track dual-camera sensors are linked via the C-link functionality, while a fifth C-Track is used as a separate measurement workstation enabling specific measurements as fast intervention station.

The Creaform solution’s flexibility was a key factor for Volkswagen Group’s Plastics BF, as it can be easily adapted to meet future and/or changing needs. Plus, model changes can be easily and simply linked via the software, and there is no need to change the hardware.