Automatic virtual metrology for wheel machining automation

Abstract

Total inspection after wheel machining becomes essential for safety consideration and continuous improvement. However, conducting wheel-by-wheel actual metrology is very expensive and time-consuming. A novel idea is to use virtual metrology (VM) that predicts wheel quality based on process data collected from machine tool with a slight supplement of actual metrology data. The technology of automatic virtual metrology (AVM) has been proposed by the authors and successfully deployed in hi-tech industries, such as semiconductor, display and solar cell. The purpose of this study was to propose an approach to apply the AVM system factory-wide to wheel machining automation (WMA) for achieving total inspection of all the precision items of WMA under mass production environment.

Keywords:

• wheel machining automation (WMA)
• automatic virtual metrology (AVM)
• continuous improvement

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank FEMCO Machine Tools Manufacturer in Taiwan for providing the raw data used in the illustrative examples.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.