On the finish of April, InnovMetric hosted its PolyWorks Convention Reside 2025 occasion. The corporate mentioned its PolyWorks Digital Thread answer for dimensional inspection, and revealed six new key functionalities of PolyWorks|Inspector. Following the PolyWorks Convention Reside 2025, Manufacturing High quality sat down with Marc Soucy, PhD, President and Co-Founding father of InnovMetric to debate the teachings the corporate has discovered because it celebrates its thirtieth anniversary, the alternatives and challenges related to a digital thread, and areas of future innovation for PolyWorks Digital Thread and PolyWorks|Inspector.
The advantages of adopting a digital thread
High quality management groups are in command of producing essential info for a lot of departments inside manufacturing, similar to inspection initiatives, dimensional inspection experiences, and 3D measurement outcomes. Usually delivered by way of guide file exports and copies, this info might trigger points like making certain a single supply of reality and defending delicate knowledge from human error and inconsistencies.
As a substitute, firms can examine adopting digital thread applied sciences, which permit 3D measurement knowledge to be delivered digitally to all stakeholders inside the organisation. A digital thread works to mix a number of software program purposes to create an interconnected area that permits knowledge to stream digitally. To deploy a digital thread for 3D measurements, a common metrology software program platform, knowledge administration on a central server, and digital connectors are required. The PolyWorks Digital Thread will be seen demonstrating this under:
When you want to learn the way the PolyWorks Digital Thread works, and the important thing advantages of adopting the answer, you may compensate for the keynote presentation of the PolyWorks Convention Reside 2025 which delves into these subjects additional.
Observe-up Q&A with Marc Soucy
RT: What are the important thing classes InnovMetric has learnt in its 30 years of supporting producers and their high quality management processes?
MS: For over 15 years, our relentless give attention to advancing level cloud know-how and enhancing our PolyWorks common metrology software program platform has pushed us to ship revolutionary instruments, improved user-friendliness, and superior efficiency—constantly assembly and exceeding our prospects’ expectations. Nonetheless, sustaining the identical tempo of innovation is more and more difficult with out conducting a radical evaluation of all the inspection course of, each upstream and downstream of metrology. Points regarding knowledge sharing, traceability, and efficiency, have been uncovered, all stemming from guide file transfers. We’re satisfied that deploying a digital thread for dimensional inspection is the important thing for manufacturing organisations to totally unlock the potential of their 3D measurement applied sciences.
RT: Manually triggered file change can result in the sharing of out-of-date or incomplete info, leading to errors, time loss, and course of inefficiencies. The digital thread is a transparent answer to this problem, however does it characterize any new challenges?
MS: The involvement of IT groups is crucial for centralised knowledge administration when implementing a digital thread. This will likely pose challenges for organisations with complicated tech environments, however the advantages are substantial. Moreover, a digital thread optimises collaboration by breaking down silos between departments and reworking processes, nevertheless, there could also be resistance to vary. To beat these hurdles, actively involving and educating colleagues from all departments who will profit from the digital thread is essential.
RT: Adopting the digital thread answer will remove guide file exchanges. However might there be a setting the place guide exchanges might have to happen? Maybe as a result of technological errors?
MS: Often, guide file transfers should be essential to enter knowledge into PolyWorks. For instance, if a knowledge administration server has been applied however lacks a digital connector required for an enterprise’s Product Lifecycle Administration (PLM) system, CAD fashions will have to be imported manually to organize inspection initiatives. Equally, when utilizing a third-party metrology software program to measure with a CMM or a robot-based automated scanning answer, the measurements should be exported on disk earlier than importing them into PolyWorks.
RT: Apart from timesaving, are there some other key advantages of adopting a digital thread?
MS: Dimensional inspection knowledge is efficacious as a result of it’s actionable. The insightful suggestions derived from measurements underpins vital selections that influence a number of sides of engineering and manufacturing processes. Making certain the accuracy of this knowledge is thus instrumental for dependable decision-making. The best option to obtain that is by deploying a digital thread for dimensional inspection that:
- Shops the dimensional inspection info obtained from all measurements for so long as wanted.
- Ensures a single supply of reality by delivering measurement info digitally.
- Controls who can entry the info and specifies permissible motion.
RT: High quality management groups which have adopted the PolyWorks digital thread have reported “that they will do twice as a lot work with the identical crew.” Might the answer assist with the business’s labour and ability scarcity?
MS: Actually, and that is evidenced by the observations of quite a few shoppers we now have assisted with the evaluation of their return on funding (ROI). Our calculations point out that the ROI is no less than ten occasions higher than the price of deploying the PolyWorks digital thread, together with each {hardware} and software program bills. This accounts for twice the measurement capability in comparison with earlier capabilities.
RT: Is the digital thread know-how as accessible for small-to-medium-sized companies as it’s for giant producers?
MS: Completely. Actually, our knowledge administration and digital connectivity answer, PolyWorks|DataLoop, is rising in reputation amongst small-to-medium-sized companies, outpacing adoption by bigger producers. Smaller organisations are likely to make selections extra swiftly and implement them with higher ease. Moreover, the PolyWorks pricing mannequin is designed to accommodate firms of all sizes. We strongly advocate for digital transformation that’s accessible to all.
RT: PolyWorks already provides 10 digital connectors. Are there any areas the place this vary might increase? And what customers would profit most from Excessive QA’s new digital connectors?
MS: The quickly rising use of 3D measurement presents quite a few alternatives that surpass the capacities of a single firm. Consequently, we now have began collaborating with varied software program firms, notably in product and course of engineering simulation modelling, high quality administration, and technical knowledge packages. These partnerships intention to speed up the digitalisation of producing processes by interconnecting our respective platforms.
In the case of Excessive QA, their PolyWorks digital thread connector will profit metrologists who have to switch invoice of traits and dimensional necessities from 2D drawings to PolyWorks|Inspector, notably those that work within the discipline of precision machining.
RT: Calls for surrounding high quality management enhancements and revolutionary merchandise with complicated geometries have been key issues for PolyWorks|Inspector 2025. What long-term traits might affect the answer’s growth sooner or later?
MS: All industries are actually grappling with the problem of accelerating their time to market. Corporations are in search of applied sciences that may allow them to launch merchandise 25% and even 50% sooner than earlier than. We consider that streamlining dimensional inspection processes, together with engineering simulation modelling, is instrumental in reaching this purpose.
When you missed InnovMetric’s PolyWorks Convention Reside 2025, you may watch the occasion on demand and dive additional into the world of digital threads.
