Optical In-line Inspection at Volkswagen`s Crafter Production

Once production in Poland is going full throttle in 2018, 100,000 Crafter and MAN TGE vans will roll off the assembly line every year. For Steinert, the Crafter van has been a market success because of both the quality of the vehicle and the large number of models available. With almost 60 base versions to choose from, the vehicles are suitable for a wide array of different uses – from serving as an ambulance to a delivery van. In spite of the variety of models available, for a Crafter to roll off the production line every 3.5 minutes requires that the in-line measuring technology measure each car body part in sync with the production cycle. For this reason, Steinert, who has been working at VW for 25 years, wanted "the best robot-based 3D in-line measuring technology on the market."

The typical measuring time, including robot movement, does not exceed three seconds per measuring position. "This speed allows us to inspect a lot of characteristics within the prescribed cycle time, which has helped us enormously with optimizing our processes," says Steinert. Employees check how the values have changed on a daily basis. A major asset for identifying the cause of measuring errors is that the camera on the ZEISS sensor always takes a photo of the particular characteristic. This enables employees to see if glue in the boreholes has led to the identified tolerance deviation and allows them to optimize the application of glue. After the first weeks of production, one thing is clear to Steinert: "The in-line approach has paid off." All five stations are working perfectly.