COMPARISON AND SELECTION OF 3D-CAMERA SYSTEM FOR CREATION OF GEOMETRIC FIGURES BY MEANS OF 3D-POINT CLOUDS

Abstract

The aerospace industry is facing major changes. Carbon fiber reinforced plastics (CFRP) are one of the most important lightweight materials in aerospace. Despite their importance, the production of components made of CFRP is still complex and costly. There are even higher manufacturing tolerances compared to metal parts. Therefore, there is a lot of potential for optimization during- the manufacturing processes. One approach dealing with manufacturing tolerances lies in optimized and automated in-line quality assurance. An automated approach offers the advantages of a fast, reproduceable and more stable production process. However, the automation systems need a feasible and reliable automated inline quality assurance. One exemplary issue in application is the correct placement and assembly of CFRP parts and stiffeners with slightly varying manufacturing tolerances from part to part. To inline measure and adjust these geometrical variations, a multitude of 3D-measurement technologies exist. This article compares different 3D- camera systems, which have the potential for a smart and fast inline measurement. Additionally, a concept for determining the spatial accuracy of the components is presented. The 3D-camera systems are verified by the manufacturing process of an application-oriented stiffened CFRP structure. The specific parts to be measured are profiled stiffeners, which are manufactured by using a vacuum infusion process. The focus of the paper is to ensure the desired dimensional accuracy of the geometries of the produced components. This requires the selection of the camera which is best suited for the task. For a comparison, the component is measured with a laser scanner as a reference to verify the accuracy of the compared 3D-cameras. Three of the four different 3D-cameras use stereo vision as recording technology. The other system is a time-of-flight camera. The acquisition of the 3D- images results in point clouds. The presentation of advantages and disadvantages of the different 3D-cameras and the comparison of the results provide an overview of the conditions and application scenario, for which the respective cameras are best suited. The abovenamed evaluation shows the potential of 3D-cameras to enable a quick and reliable inline measurement of CFRP parts. This could lead to optimized CFRP parts manufacturing and assembly processes.