Reduced Measuring Time in Production Line at Motorsport Supplier thanks to ZEISS Metrology

"Lighter, more reliable and better quality," says Mario Pichler, Head of Quality Assurance at Pankl Engine Systems, describing the constantly growing demands of Formula 1 motorsport teams on engine components. The engineers at Pankl are therefore tasked with designing parts so that they are as light as possible, yet able to withstand extreme forces on the track: "It is often a thin line between weight and sustainability," says Pichler.
To push the boundaries of technology, a lot also has to be measured – not least during the production process. Until a few years ago, Pankl mainly used manual measuring equipment for these in-process measurements. "This took a lot of time and was largely dependent on the skills of the employees," remembers Pichler.

The ZEISS DuraMax coordinate measuring machine allows Pankl to reduce its measuring times by up to 80 percent. Example: milling of the contours on a connecting rod. According to the test report, around 80 features have to be measured. Prior to the ZEISS DuraMax era, the employees needed one hour and twenty minutes to do this job. Today, the workpiece is clamped onto the ZEISS DuraMax which then measures all required values in just 15 minutes. Projected on to the numerous process steps and initial sample inspections, this results in considerable savings at the production level for Pankl.
The introduction of the ZEISS DuraMax had a further benefit: as the measuring machine can be directly used in the production environment, Pankl receives a high degree of certainty about the quality of its own products at an early stage. Pankl has since purchased four of the compact measuring machines.