Automatic conveyer scanning

You know those drive-in automatic car wash places? When I was little, my mum would let us sit in the car while it was taken through the tunnel where the giant brushes would soap and scrub the car from all sides. For anyone who has not experienced this, I highly recommend it. As a child I remember feeling equal parts fear and awe at the noise and sights of the giant machine closing in on us from all sides. I imagine it’s not as exciting as an adult. Perhaps the connection is a little far-fetched, but I could not help thinking of it when I was reading about Nikon’s new APDIS Gap & Flush system.

Like that ‘tunnel’ where the car gets moved along and washed, the APDIS Gap & Flush system moves a car along in the final stage of production and scans it to check the body work for, you guessed it: any potential gaps and whether all the panels are flush with each other. It does this with an accuracy of down to 0.150mm for flushness and down to 0.300mm for the gaps between panels. The big advantage here is that it’s done without robots. This means complex programming and safety measures can be avoided that are required with the use of robotic systems.

APDIS was designed in conjunction with VRSI and can scan up to speeds of 140mm per second, using three Laser Radars. The stand-off design of APDIS means that it does not impede the production line conveyer in any way: its minimum distance from the conveyer is 0.5m. It’s able to scan any vehicle moving on the conveyer regardless of colour or paint finish and, unlike other alternatives, does not require highly skilled operators to function. It’s also large enough to be used for anything from a small hatchback up to a large truck or SUV.

On the specifics of how APDIS operates, Nikon says:

“The vehicle is tracked directly using linear sensors, meaning no conveyor interface is required. Position is determined prior to the vehicle entering the system by a set of 3D sensors that automatically account for variations in position on the conveyor. Once the vehicle is inside the system, the three Laser Radars move synchronously along linear rails, with the long range allowing measurement of gaps and flushes at specific programmed locations. By continuously moving back and forth along the rails as the vehicle passes through, data is acquired all along the vehicle with up to 170 measurement locations possible.”

Although it might not be as flashy or exciting as I used to find going through a car wash, it’s certainly much more advanced technology with some clear benefits that are sure to come in handy for the automotive production lines.