Industrial Technologies

division of BIOLAB 

Push-button quality control within the automotive industry? It sounds like science fiction. Yet according to noise and vibration experts Diagnostic Instruments, current technological developments indicate the arrival of a wonderful opportunity for the automotive industry to make startling improvements in quality control aswe move towards the millennium.

This opportunity arises from the marriage of existing technology with powerful new diagnostic techniques - an exciting development that has taken place in response to emerging trends in the automotive industry, changing customer requirements and ever-increasing demands for scientific methods of measuring quality.

The automotive industry has always been a competitive marketplace, however with the introduction by the main OEM's of QS9000, component manufacturers are now beginning to face global competition as part of a shrinking supplier base.

OEM's are enforcing increasingly high-quality standards and levels of reliability, while demanding reduced component costs. Successful suppliers can no longer expect merely to supply stand-alone components. Level 1 suppliers are now effectively system integrators and are being tasked with the management of complete subsystems, with overall responsibility for the quality of the complete system, not just their own component. As a result, strategic component suppliers are now experiencing the downward push of quality demands, and they too are shouldering more responsibility than ever before.

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The increasing importance of QS9000 places further demands on suppliers and requires an auditable trail of quality. Gaining a competitive advantage is becoming more difficult, and as a result automotive manufacturers are actively embracing new technology in a bid to increase quality and reduce costs.

But it is not just OEM's that are fanning the winds of change. Customers too are becoming more demanding. Prices must be lower, cars must be better equipped, more efficient and more reliable. And, as cars become more sophisticated, so do the expectations of those who buy them. Automotive customers are developinga keen 'ear for quality'. A 'quiet' car is a quality car. The 'clunk' of the door closing should be reassuringly solid, not 'tinny' or light. Road noise, engine noise and any other noise source inside the cabin is definitely not appreciated.

The force of customer expectation and the resultant acceleration technological developments in engine technology and sound absorbing materials have combined to create yet another hurdle for suppliers to jump. The result is a gradual, step-by-step move towards the silent auto. Better design means that engines are becoming quieter, and sound-absorbing materials are becoming more efficient. For suppliers this means that the driver can hear noises that were previously masked. As a result, various components, for example motors for wing mirrors, sun roofs and wipers are being rejected by OEM's on the grounds that they are too noisy. Indeed, they are becoming the noisiest components within the cabin of the vehicle.

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Recognising these emerging trends in the automotive industry, Diagnostic Instruments have produced a unique instrument - the world's first purpose-designed production test analyser.

Diagnostic Instruments are not strangers to innovation. In 1987, the company formed with the intention of using the latest technology to meet the emerging needs of a different market. DI recognised that mechanical engineers needed greater access to powerful new spectral analysis techniques. At that time, only advanced R&D laboratories had access to this technology, known as fast fourier transform (FFT) analysis. In response to market needs, DI introduced the world's first hand-portable FFT analyser, bringing powerful technology to engineers by employing state-of-the-art technology inside an easy to use package.

Ten years later, and with a wealth of experience in the field of noise and vibration, DI have again applied technology to provide industry with a much-needed solution.

The company's extensive research within the automotive industry revealed emerging trends that they believe will take the industry forward into the next millennium. As a result they developed a system specifically to meet the needs of manufacturers of mechanical products and components. Their aim was to assist these manufacturers in becoming more competitive, and to help them meet and exceed customer expectations.

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Working as part of a DTI initiative, DI developed a technique that links noise, vibration and product quality. The result was LineCHECK™, the world's first purpose-designed production test analyser. The system takes to its natural conclusion the demands of customers, and the standards enforcedby the main OEMs. The company feels certain that noise and vibration will play a key part in the success of automotive manufacturers in the near future.

LineCHECK™ uses powerful signal analysis and signature feature extraction (SFX™)diagnostic techniques to look for shifts in a product's noise and vibration spectra. When a change represents a defect or unsatisfactory drop in quality, an alarm is triggered, providing operators or automated systems with an indication that the unit should be removed.

LineCHECK™ can perform two distinct types of component quality checks, 'motorised assembly' testing, for example on wiper mechanisms or electric sunroofs, and 'structural testing', which can be used to check ball joint stiffness and detect cracks/bonding integrity in Brake linings. These two fundamental categories can also be applied to other application areas, such as in-car transmission testing, bearing roundness checking and bar-cropping crack detection.

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LineCHECK™ will have far-reaching implications for automotive suppliers. By providing the ability to detect a range of defects and by removing the subjectivity from production testing, LineCHECK™ provides a scientific measurable and user-definable quality standard. It also records the test results of every item on a production run, producing an auditable record of quality and a fault identification history that can be used to 'close the production loop'. This data can then be used to improve the production process and increase productivity, while reducing the cost of quality.

So what of the future? This technology - which has already been tried, tested and proven by high-profile suppliers and OEMs - can now be widely used as a tool in the automotive industry as a whole. There is little doubt that it signals the end of the subjective 'look, listen and hope' method of quality standard testing. It brings an exact, scientific method that offers suppliers complete assurance that their product is the best it can possible be.

Because of the supplier management system, the companies in each tier are required to have an effective method of setting, measuring and recording quality levels. In the future, suppliers are likely to go out of business if they are unable or unwilling to meet this strict quality control criteria. As the value of this technology is recognised, a great opportunity will openup within the increasingly partner-orientated automotive industry. Manufacturers and suppliers will work closely with noise and vibration specialist companies who can meet their needs Ð offering everything from consultation and training, to the provision of complete production quality test systems. Together, they will be able to move beyond defective unit identification to the point where, thanks to technology, the manufacturer will be able to improve product design and quality.

Push-button quality control? - it is already within grasp of the automotive industry.

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