How machine vision and artificial intelligence saved an aerospace defense contractor Zero defect manufacturing is a relatively new quality paradigm, but more and more producers of large, complex products – most notably, aircraft and automobiles – are pursuing the goal of zero defects. After the quality escapes of early 2024, which resulted in several aircraft… Read more »
Wind blade manufacturers continue to rely heavily on manual processes, but they are developing technologies to automate various aspects of the wind blade manufacturing process: material handling, ply layup, vacuum infusion, assembly and finishing operations. Their goal is to lower cycle time and production costs, which will help to reduce the levelized cost of energy… Read more »
“Quality escape” was not a familiar term to the general public, or even to many stakeholders in the manufacturing world, until Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun used it to describe the cause of the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-9 door plug assembly failure in January. A single improperly installed bolt slipped past inspection procedures by the supplier… Read more »
When we ask tradeshow visitors who are not using Aligned Vision equipment about multitasking laser projection, the most common response we get is that their projectors have it, but they don’t use it. In theory, multitasking laser projection sounds like a valuable feature. After all, if you are able to apply one projector to multiple… Read more »
When 3D laser projection first entered the manufacturing realm, laser pioneer and Aligned Vision founder Scott Blake focused specifically on creating “templates of light” for structural aerospace components made from advanced composite materials. The boost to quality and reduction in cycle time were nothing short of revolutionary in this first industrial application of 3D laser… Read more »
Artificial intelligence (AI) has made surprisingly deep inroads into the manufacturing realm over the past half-dozen years. According to management consulting firm McKinsey, only 20 percent of manufacturers reported using AI in 2017, but today that number hovers between 50 and 60 percent. With the tight margins and stiff competition most manufacturers are currently facing,… Read more »
When it comes to improving weld quality and accelerating welding operations, guidance from laser projection systems is a mature, proven technology. In fact, for more than 15 years LASERGUIDE laser projection has been used in harsh shipyard environments to provide efficient, reliable welding support for all Virginia-class submarines. To raise both quality and speed of… Read more »
Automatic in-process inspection offers such immense advantages over manual inspection, one might wonder why it hasn’t already been implemented across the manufacturing world. But we get it. As with almost any new technology for the shop floor, any hesitancy probably stems from legitimate concerns about the implementation process. What does it take to develop an… Read more »
In-process inspection technologies have advanced considerably over the past decade, with many manufacturers performing inspection with smart cameras, profilometry, automated metrology systems and more. Such advancements are impressive but limited when it comes to large works-in-progress (WIPs). Picking up where these technologies drop off, LASERVISION has been designed specifically for large WIPs, like the one… Read more »
As composite manufacturing has advanced over the years, it has experienced a striking imbalance in the maturity of digital technologies. Computers have performed design and engineering tasks for decades, while paper plybooks and travelers are still used in many shops to guide composites fabrication. Since our founding in 1988 (when we were called Assembly Guidance),… Read more »
As more and more automation is used to manufacture large components, relying on human beings and a set of rudimentary measuring tools to inspect works in progress (WIPs) seems more and more antiquated. More important, manual inspection on automated manufacturing floors now represents the bottleneck of bottlenecks for industries that are otherwise achieving new speed… Read more »
When it’s time to purchase new laser projectors, the choice of which projectors to buy often simply comes down to cost. But that’s where the simple part ends! Though the projectors themselves may look pretty similar from vendor to vendor, their actual value is determined by the answers to three primary questions: When 3D laser… Read more »
Industry 4.0 for composites is attainable in 2023. If your reaction to this statement is skepticism, not only are you not alone; you are probably in the majority of composites industry professionals. This is especially true when it comes to in-process composites quality programs. After all, quality assurance on most fabrication floors still depends on… Read more »
“Achieving the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO) for laser projection” is how Aligned Vision president Scott Blake summarizes what he and the Aligned Vision team heard from you throughout 2022. At trade shows, customer visits and other venues, we listened to what you had to share about your experience with laser projection, automatic inspection… Read more »
Anyone who has traversed the qualification process for a new manufacturing technology knows just how lengthy and complex these processes can be. The uninitiated may be surprised to learn that implementing a new technology takes many more steps than they might have anticipated. In reality, qualifying a new manufacturing technology for application to your shop… Read more »
“Foreign object debris” (FOD) may not be the term that devotees of the Game of Thrones series would use, but most still remember the Starbucks cup that escaped the cutting room floor and made its way to TV screens across the world in the series finale. As an analogy to the problem of foreign object… Read more »
The benefits of automatic inspection extend well beyond the technology’s lights-out speed and greater accuracy compared to manual inspection. This is because of one obvious difference between the two: automatic inspection technologies like LASERVISION produce data, and lots of it. Manufacturers of large, complex components and subassemblies are quickly leveraging this “big data” to boost… Read more »
Mobile electronic process control has proven to be a highly valuable tool for manufacturers that employ manual processes in their production operations. Many such operations will continue to be performed most efficiently by human operators, because people have better visual and tactile senses and greater mobility than automated systems. Even as robots and cobots continue… Read more »
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