Posts by: William Hammontree

Within the aerospace supply chain, quality is an absolute must. It’s not a nice-to-have but a must-have to ensure the safety of passengers and crews. However, as important as producing high-quality aerospace components is for safety, it’s also critical to controlling manufacturing costs. 

One way to control both costs and quality is by integrating Scan-to-Path™ aerospace metrology systems into your manufacturing process. This technology allows you to immediately adjust production to any scanned part, instantaneously notifying the line of any out-of-tolerance, misaligned part, machining defect, or surface morphology issues.

Keep reading to learn more.

Why 3D Automated Metrology is Important to the Aerospace QC Process

As an aerospace manufacturer or supplier, you must adhere to strict (and ever-changing) regulations and requirements. With every launch of a next-generation aircraft, a new line of critical requirements follows.

Additionally, because you must rigorously control your own part specifications, your entire supply chain must properly maintain, control, and adhere to an entire library of specifications, certifications, and accreditations.

Scan-to-Path™ 3D automated metrology systems help to ensure that parts respect those dimensional requirements in real time. This means you can run production lines 24/7 with the confidence of knowing that any defects will immediately be caught. This all but does away with the need to perform periodic QC inspections during production. Instead, the process is handed over to innovative technology specifically designed to measure parts to the tightest requirements.

Manual Metrology Versus Automated Metrology

Today, there are some manufacturers who rely on manual metrology processes to ensure that semi-finished, finished, or work-in-process parts respect tolerances. Oftentimes, manual measuring instruments are used in labor-intensive manufacturing processes. There is no doubt that these instruments are reliable and accurate, but they do rely on QC personnel, who must be ever-present on the shop floor to perform scheduled inspections. Another downside of using manual metrology instruments is that human error is harder to avoid. 

On the other end of the spectrum, there is 3D automated metrology. Instead of relying on manual metrology processes and steps, automated metrology systems operate in real-time. Manufacturers achieve several benefits when these highly accurate systems are placed in multiple locations along the production line.

First, manufacturing cycle times are lowered, and production throughput increases as there are no interruptions from QC personnel performing random inspections. Second, part quality is guaranteed. Lastly, the time needed to address issues and find solutions is drastically reduced. 

While aerospace metrology systems can be somewhat challenging to implement, their return on investment is hard to ignore.

Scan to Path™ Versus Standard 3D Automated Metrology

Although 3D automated metrology systems can provide manufacturers with many benefits, it’s also important to know that Scan-to-Path™ metrology and conventional 3D automated metrology are not the same. In fact, not every conventional 3D automated metrology system is the same.

Most 3D automated metrology systems are incorporated into the final QC process, and while they’re great at detecting defects, the issue is that these defects aren’t known until the very end of the manufacturing process. 

Scan-to-Path™ metrology systems, on the other hand, detect defects during every stage of the manufacturing process, which helps to reduce waste and production time.  Additionally, Scan-to-Path™ utilizes software that can quickly and accurately track, retain, and act on millions of data points gathered in microseconds. This dramatically improves part quality and reduces the need for repair, rework, or refurbishment of defective parts while helping to significantly lower the incidence of human errors significantly.

Learn More About Scan-to-Path™ Aerospace Metrology Solutions Today

Are you interested in learning more about Scan-to-Path™metrology? Talk to our team at MAS! Founded in 2003, we specialize in designing and manufacturing metrology systems for clients in the aerospace industry. Please contact us today to schedule your first discovery meeting. We look forward to meeting you!