Efficient Virtual Check Of The Subassembly

An important part in assembly analysis is checking whether individual parts can be assembled into subassemblies. In the automotive industry, a joints master jig is used for this purpose. It is used to check whether the connection geometries of these parts allow assembling or whether too high downholder forces are possibly required for placing welding or gluing spots.

The conventional approach of checking the subassembly is as follows: The parts are clamped together to subassemblies in the joints master jig and then measured with conventional gauges. Such joints master jigs are expensive fixtures that require expert knowledge to use.

The ATOS system makes such physical assembly analyses unnecessary. The assembly happens virtually instead. In a first step, the user scans the parts of the subassembly individually and entirely in 3D. Even non-rigid parts that have to be clamped for a meaningful measurement can be brought into the correct, forced position by Virtual Clamping.

The user can then align the measuring data of the individual parts according to the Reference Point System (RPS) in ZEISS INSPECT. In that way, every part is defined. Now the user can analyze to what extent the parts are fit for joining without using clamping or downholder forces. In the visualized assembly, the user immediately sees whether the measuring data of the parts virtually overlap or whether the parts are too far away from each other and cannot be joined anymore.

An initial solution to the problem can then be simulated in the software. The user then changes the alignment of the parts so that the parts can be joined at the critical area. The software shows immediately whether and where the changes in alignment could lead to other problems in the assembly. That is how the user can make variable and well-founded decisions about where corrections need to be applied.