Automation: Software for the Future

OBERKOCHEN/Germany, 26.04.2016.

Industry 4.0 will only succeed if manufacturing companies continuously capture and evaluate their quality, machine and production process data and use these data to improve their entire processes. ZEISS is contributing to the accompanying paradigm shift in the measuring process by continuously enhancing its computing software solutions. ZEISS will present new approaches and enhanced software packages at the Control trade fair in Stuttgart, 26-29 April.

"The measuring process is increasingly the base for steering all manufacturing," says Dr. Hubert Lettenbauer, Head of Software Development at the ZEISS Industrial Metrology business group. As in every Industry 4.0 scenario, software is increasingly becoming the main focus. For some time, ZEISS has been creating increasingly intelligent measuring and evaluation software from one release to the next. For Lettenbauer, the goal is clear: "We want to achieve the greatest possible automation of the entire measuring process to increase our customers efficiency, to improve the reproducibility of measurements and to minimize operator influence."

Focusing on automation

With software developments and new features for ZEISS PiWeb, ZEISS CALYPSO and ZEISS CALIGO, ZEISS is focusing on the increasing automation in industry. That is why ZEISS started to systematically evolve the ZEISS PiWeb process analysis tool, enabling companies to merge a multitude of measuring and inspection data from different sources and detect problems more quickly by using comprehensive evaluation possibilities. All measuring machines from ZEISS now come standard with the reporting functionality of this process analysis software. In the next stage, the focus will be on software which combs through the large quantity of available measurement and test data automatically looking for relevant correlations and then presents these in a user-friendly manner. "This is no easy task, but thats what will make ZEISS PiWeb a holistic evaluation and steering software solution," says Lettenbauer.

ZEISS CALYPSO also promises to increase efficiency. Lettenbauer explains: "These days companies find themselves in an Industry 4.0 world. Everyones talking about the function for importing PMI (product manufacturing information), and this is where ZEISS CALYPSO comes into play." To take one example: by using this module, CAD metadata the so-called PMI data can be transferred easily and largely automatically in the form of dimensions and tolerances and evaluated intelligently. This means that test plans can be generated far more quickly by using 3D models.

With ZEISS CALYPSO 2016 a release that will be launched at Control ZEISS is setting new standards so that metrology engineers can, under ideal conditions, reduce the time spent generating measurement plans by up to 80 percent. ZEISS CALYPSO means more convenient user guidance, even for PMI data. Now metrology engineers can easily filter by groups and characteristics, sort them and, with just a few clicks, transfer the relevant information to the test plan. In spite of these considerable savings, ZEISS is already thinking about further evolving the software so that, in the future, it generates test plans independently and completely automatically by using the metadata saved in the existing CAD models. This goal is still a ways off, but as Lettenbauer says: "The trend is clearly towards greater automation and, consequently, preventing human transfer errors."

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The ZEISS METROTOM 800 and 1500 computer tomographs give you a quick look inside

Press contact:

Dr. Benjamin Viering

Carl Zeiss IMT GmbH

Phone: +49 7364 20-2144

Fax: +49 7364 20-4657

benjamin.viering@zeiss.com

About ZEISS

ZEISS is an internationally leading technology enterprise operating in the optics and optoelectronics industries. The ZEISS Group develops and distributes semiconductor manufacturing equipment, measuring technology, microscopes, medical technology, eyeglass lenses, camera and cine lenses, binoculars and planetarium technology. With its solutions, the company constantly advances the world of optics and helps shape technological progress. ZEISS is divided up into the four segments Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology, Research & Quality Technology, Medical Technology, and Vision Care/Consumer Optics. ZEISS is represented in over 40 countries and operates more than 30 production sites, over 50 sales and service locations and about 25 research and development facilities. In fiscal year 2014/15 the company generated revenue approximating 4.5 billion with around 25,000 employees. Founded in 1846 in Jena, the company is headquartered in Oberkochen, Germany. Carl Zeiss AG is the strategic management holding company that manages the ZEISS Group. The company is wholly owned by the Carl Zeiss Stiftung (Carl Zeiss Foundation).

Further information at www.zeiss.com

Industrial Metrology

The Industrial Metrology business group is a leading manufacturer of multidimensional metrology solutions. These include coordinate measuring machines and metrology software for the automotive, aircraft, mechanical engineering, plastics and medical technology industries. The business group additionally offers a broad spectrum of customer services with measuring houses and competence services in the proximity of its customers around the globe. The Industrial Metrology business group is headquartered in Oberkochen. Production and development sites outside Germany are located in Maple Grove in the USA, Shanghai, China and Bangalore, India. The business group is allocated to the Research & Quality Technology segment. Around 5,900 employees work for the segment, generating revenues totaling 1.356 billion in fiscal year 2014/15.

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