Taces Project at the CONTROL Fair

TRACES will be present at the CONTROL international trade fair for quality assurance as an exhibitor.

Artifacts and updated information of the project supported by the European Commission’s programme eTEN will be at the disposal of visitors in Stand 5412 located in Hall 5.

Visit the Fair website -http://www.control-messe.com/en/control - for more information

Project

The main objective of the project is to bring a trans-European nature to an existing e-Calibration service platform, which is currently being used by Co-ordinate Measuring Machines (CMMs) users, in a very isolated manner. This new transnational Calibration Expert Service defines a highly exploitable e-working environment that will bring up noticeable advantages for both sides, industrial final users and calibration expert companies.

In modern production, dimensional metrology plays a pivotal role in process control and quality assurance. Moreover, the general tendency towards increasing accuracy and quality in production demands high confidence in measurement results and in the traceability of measurements to national or international standards. The majority of large companies in the automotive and aerospace industry have internal services in place for performing regular CMM verification. In SMEs the situation is worse . In many cases, either CMM's are not verified regularly, or interim checks do not meet traceability and metrological requirements. Furthermore, many SMEs lack the necessary resources to perform interim procedures and to interpret the results. In order to improve this scenario, the following objectives can be identified:

• To raise the importance of interim verification procedures
• To increase the frequency of interim verifications
• To improve the knowledge and expertise of those responsible for the verification process
• To satisfy traceability requirements

The TRACES project aims to address these targets by establishing an Internet-based infrastructure between highly specialised metrology service providers and industrial metrology users. With respect to the use of machines in an industrial environment, the Internet can be seen as an enabler for reducing service costs, by conveying necessary data to an expert in a virtual manner, rather than the expert having to displace himself/herself to acquire it. Beyond that, an Internet application with an appropriate architecture:

• Will enable more frequent verifications and more complex evaluations.
• Will enable the early detection of changes in the metrological properties of measuring devices.
• Will increase the quality of the monitoring service and minimise negative influences on product quality.