DIRECT: Weaving Inspection into the Digital Thread

Guest speaker: Dr Toby Maw

Abstract: Data driven manufacturing is a critical concept within Industry 4.0. The ability to use data to create knowledge of products and processes, is vital. Product quality data comes from inspection, be it in-line, in-process, or end of line, and its importance cannot be overstated. However, with the addition of context, this quality data can be converted into something even more useful, information. Contextualising inspection results enables them to be linked to other sources of data from design, manufacturing and engineering domains. This is the basic principle of a digital thread. It connects data from traditionally independent disciplines, enabling automation, and data driven decisions, for the benefit of the entire process chain.

In the field of dimensional metrology, there has been significant progress towards realising the digital thread using model based definition (MBD). Successful implementations have enabled capabilities such as: automatic inspection programming, digital twinning, intelligent process control, and root cause analysis. Each overcoming major industrial challenges and producing significant benefits.

Now, the Non-Destructive Testing (NDT) and surface metrology communities are working to further contribute to the vision of industry 4.0 and data driven manufacturing. This presentation details the findings of MTC activities investigating the opportunities, considerations and challenges faced when attempting to weave these inspection methods into the digital thread.

Event Recording

Biography: Toby Maw is a Senior Research Engineer in the Digital Engineering group at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC). His research background stemmed from a PhD in experimental physics from Loughborough University in the field of the characterisation of novel materials. He has 9 years’ metrology experience having worked at Nikon Metrology for 3 years in the coordinate measurement machine software development team before joining the MTC, where he leads the Computer Aided Inspection and Quality research area within the Metrology and NDT department. Toby has managed and technically led cross disciplinary teams in projects across multiple sectors, specialising in the areas of digital manufacturing and digital measurement integration.