2004 Award Winners
Award-winning project: „ViSCAN“: precise measurement method using light
Project partners: Carl Zeiss Industrielle Messtechnik GmbH | Steinbeis Transfer Center Quality Assurance and Image Processing/Ilmenau
Delicate printed circuit boards, sensitive micromotors, soft seals for precision mechanical devices and hair-thin profiles all have one thing in common: they are difficult to measure. The new video camera solves what has previously been a problem: ‘ViSCAN’ captures images of complex-shaped objects from all angles and automatically sends the measured data to a computer for analysis. In close collaboration with Carl Zeiss Industrielle Messtechnik GmbH, the Steinbeis Transfer Centre for Quality Assurance and Image Processing in Ilmenau has developed the ‘ViSCAN’ video-optical probe. The small camera captures 25 frames per second. Thanks to the flexible electronic control of the lighting, ‘ViSCAN’ allows the image capture parameters to be adjusted fully automatically. The decisive factors in awarding the contract to Steinbeis were the coherent concept, the modern software and the expertise in metrological image processing. The Steinbeis engineers have developed an extremely lightweight combination of camera, precision lenses and lighting. The advantage is that ViSCAN can be automatically swapped onto the coordinate measuring machines via a probe magazine. This allows optical and tactile probing to be carried out alternately on the same coordinate measuring machine, with the results being reconciled using the ‘Calypso’ software.
As the video-optical sensor, combined with the locking rotary-swivel joint of the Zeiss co-ordinate measuring machines, enables image capture from all directions, there is no longer any need for the time-consuming and error-prone re-clamping of the workpieces. Complex-shaped parts are now measured more accurately, more efficiently and, above all, more quickly. Given today’s short product cycles and the wide variety of workpieces, the mini-camera is a key to success.