Rus Emerick, Global Process Owner for 3D Imaging at Schneider Electric, spends a lot of time thinking*about tolerances. Starting with tolerances of individual parts, his brain moves swiftly on to the effect of*chains of tolerances that, once you get to 4, 5 or more parts in an assembly, could cumulatively affect*the reliability of the products being made at any of their manufacturing and design sites in 22 countries*around the world. But how can the consistency of assemblies be verified before and during production?*Using traditional destructive testing was proving inefficient, slow and often did not help the team verify*consistency in the parts and assemblies. Dynamic tolerance analysis of these assembled parts was even*more of a challenge. Money was being wasted. There had to be a better solution and Emerick knew that 3D*data would continue to provide the answers he needed.
Schneider Electric (http://www.schneider-electric.com) has been in operation for more than 170 years,*evolving through iron and steel, heavy equipment and*into electrical and automation management products.*Products and services cover electrical distribution,*industrial automation, critical power & cooling, building*management and security, with manufacturing plants at*key manufacturing centers across the world.
Emerick, a specialist in process improvement, is*something of a trailblazer in the organization, finding and*implementing solutions that are designed to improve*6 Sigma practices, working with production teams on*supporting lean manufacturing techniques in an effort to reduce costs and waste in the engineering-to-production workflow. His work is to design processes that*can be methodically implemented across each of the manufacturing*plants, allowing best practices to become standard at each site.*His focus is on verification of products using 3D data. For 10 years,*he has worked very successfully with automated inspection in the*production lines, using Laser Designs Surveyor 3D scanners and*Geomagic® Control (formerly Geomagic Qualify®) to measure,*inspect and report on products. Since the demand for better, more*efficient manufacturing never lets up, so Emerick keeps the pressure*on his team, some 125 strong, to find new, faster and better ways for*3D data to improve product quality.
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