Digitalisation of a glider: Measurement services provider opts for Hexagon Metrology

The Industrial Measurement Department of VMT GmbH, a measurement services provider based in Bruchsal, southwest Germany, was given the job of digitising a complete glider fuselage and creating a CAD model out of the measured data as part of a wider project.

The metrology specialists were tasked with the challenge of achieving the highest possible accuracy. VMT, with its years of experience of products in the field of industrial metrology, developed a flexible solution from their existing instrument stock and combined a laser tracker from Leica Geosystems and a ROMER measuring arm equipped with a Perceptron V5 laser scanner.

Using the measuring arm and laser tracker combination, the industrial metrology specialists avoided the “leapfrogging” method. VMT Engineer Carolin Landgraf explains: “The measurement volume of a measuring arm can be infinitely extended in theory by repositioning as many times as required during the measuring process – although the measurement error increases with every repositioning. In the light of the latter disadvantage, this method did not appear the perfect choice for us.” The VMT ideal solution therefore involved the use of a Leica Geosystems laser tracker.

Volkmar Wandel, Head of Industrial Measurement at VMT, describes the sequence of measurement using the instrument combination: “We set out a system of reference points with the laser tracker consisting of XYZ points defined using reflector measurement. Then we were able to capture the reference point network with the ROMER arm and start digitalisation. At every new position of the arm we re-referenced ourselves to the field of fixed points, thus preventing the measurement error from becoming cumulative. . . . .