Major automaker installs Perceptron’s AutoFit™ system to improve gap and flush quality

Citation

(2002), "Major automaker installs Perceptron’s AutoFit™ system to improve gap and flush quality", Assembly Automation, Vol. 22 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.2002.03322daf.005

Major automaker installs Perceptron’s AutoFit™ system to improve gap and flush quality

Major automaker installs Perceptron’s AutoFit™ system to improve gap and flush quality

Keywords: Machine

Perceptron, Inc. has announced that a high-volume European automaker has decided to use its AutoFit™ laser-based measurement system in their final assembly area to improve its gap and flush quality. This decision follows 6 months of intensive testing conducted by the company’s engineers in one of their premier assembly plants.

“There is a growing industry trend to focus on the Gaps and Flushness of an automobile’s exterior body panels as an important measure of quality”, says Bill Corriveau, Perceptron senior vice president. “The human eye can easily detect non-parallel and non-symmetrical features. When a customer walks into a showroom and sees uneven gaps between the body panels, he questions the vehicle’s quality before he even looks inside. Doors that are poorly flushed or have non- uniform gaps increase wind and road noise. They can create water leaks, and even change the force required to close the doors”.

Perceptron’s AutoFit™ system automatically measures the gaps and flushness of adjacent body panels such as hood-to-fender, front door to rear door, and others points that are programmed into the system. The system uses standard industrial robots, newly enhanced perceptron laser sensors and special software algorithms to measure key points on every vehicle over the manufacturer’s full spectrum of paint colors and metallic finishes.

Gap and flushness information is displayed to door fitters who perform any necessary adjustments, which are then rechecked by the AutoFit™ system. AutoFit™ data collected in the final assembly area are used to drive quality improvements upstream in the production process.

Prior to the advent of AutoFit™, automakers were forced to employ imprecise and labor-intensive methods to determine required gap and flush adjustments. In addition, an automaker’s quality department could audit only a small number of vehicles of the hundreds built each shift. AutoFit™ dramatically improves the efficiency of the closure panel fitting process by determining for the adjusters the specific location and the nature of the required adjustment.

“This automaker is using the AutoFit system to increase the perceived quality of their vehicles without adding to their direct material or manufacturing costs”, says Corriveau.

Web site: http://www.perceptron.com/