Metrology and manufacturing move closer together

Exhibitors use the world's leading trade fair for industrial quality assurance to present their innovations to a wide audience. The first prototypes are shown here as a trend indicator just as much as market-ready and proven measuring technology, which is constantly being refined from year to year. From optical measuring technology with augmented reality features, to hundred percent monitoring of collaborative systems, to the latest computer tomographs and touch sensors and, above all, industrial image processing - Control shows what users need. This is still the conviction of the trade fair organisers - this at a time when other major industrial performance shows such as Cebit or Baselworld have been discontinued or are in danger of disappearing from the trade fair calendars.

Popular trade fairs with practical relevance
Control therefore still seems to bring added value to users and presenting companies alike, as the exhibitors at the global quality event unanimously describe the industry get-together as "important" and "very important" as well as "highly significant", according to the trade fair management. Among other things, they value the fact that they can obtain an overview of the latest developments in measuring and testing technology in a compact format within a short space of time. Control is therefore in a league of its own, as most exhibitors see the trade fair as the world's number one trade fair for all aspects of the cross-sectoral topic of quality assurance, the statement continues. In order to enter into discussions with customers, arouse their interest, solve problems and ultimately generate orders, the modules and complete systems on offer need to be practical. "A criterion that is fundamental for us when we compile the offer and allocate presentation space," says Control project manager Fabian Krüger.

Quality assurance directly in production
One trend that is emerging is that quality assurance and production are moving ever closer together. Today, testing is done inline and without loss of time. The manufacturers of testing and measuring technology are also adapting to this trend, because more and more often these are modular applications integrated into the shop floor instead of separate and outsourced testing stations. Today, QA systems are integrated into the production process and must be able to withstand harsh environments and process data in rapid succession.

Real-time measurement data supported inline QA processes
"Customers from the manufacturing industry not only expect precise and reliable measurement data, but increasingly also visualization of this data in real time," explains Professor Alexander Reiterer, head of department at the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques, IPM, and adds: "Application-specific visualized data are like a tool with which all states can be reliably evaluated and processes intuitively controlled." After all, without this measurement data, determined by modern sensor and measurement technology and evaluated by intelligent software in fractions of a second, quality assurance in real time is not possible. "We observe that tolerances and structures are increasingly checked within the manufacturing process. Even with 100 percent inspections, this is a trend," reports Fabian Krüger.

Professional QA without slowing down the manufacturing process
In order to display measurement data on mobile devices such as tablets or VR glasses, suitable interfaces, techniques and methods are required. A software platform with components for interactive interpretation and visualization of measurement data should also be available. Industrial image processing (IMC), one of the focal points of the world's leading trade fair for quality assurance, plays an important role in this context! Another focus of current research is on data reduction, especially with regard to the visualization of so-called point clouds, which are created during measurement and data acquisition with laser scanners. Enormous amounts of data must then be reduced to a level that can be processed quickly.

Special trade fair guide for machine vision and vision systems
Exhibitors who are specifically interested in imaging QA processes will find numerous innovation projects at the globally recognized number 1 for industrial quality assurance, which will be presented to a broad trade audience for the first time. The new developments will be joined by established and optimized systems. Exhibitors with a special interest will also find practical help in the special trade fair guide to machine vision (machine vision) and vision systems, which can be accessed online. It lists more than 250 manufacturers and suppliers of components, subassemblies, subsystems and complete systems in the relevant segment who are taking part in Control. Control thus offers the largest and most comprehensive presentation in the field of machine vision and vision systems, so that trade visitors can literally find out about the current world offering of machine vision, vision, camera and sensor systems, including "embedded vision" (miniature image processing systems integrated into machine and process stations).

Special program item "Control Vision Talks
Interested parties who want to devote themselves even more intensively to the topic of vision and machine vision are recommended to attend the matching lecture series of the European Machine Vision Association (EMVA). For the fifth time, there will be numerous lectures on this subject in Hall 6 - Stand 6515 by the proven Control cooperation partner. Participation is also free of charge.