By David Chadwick
One key element in competition is quality. All departments, including product planning, design, production, and service, must be integrated into the quality process in order to reach the desired level of quality. An essential component of the quality process is inspection planning. Typically, during this procedure, we
- Balloon the size and notes.
- Create the data for the bill of attributes.
- Write reports for the First Article Inspection.
Some difficulties with the human or partially automated procedure are as follows:
- Errors can occur in the manual method.
- A laborious procedure.
- Postpone bringing a product to market.
The following steps should be taken by the solution as the optimal procedure for this inspection planning:
- Using CAD models and drawings, automatically inflate the dimensions and produce a bill of attributes.
- Make inspection reports automatically.
- Provide CAD-neutral, high-quality data in a format that is accessible to vendors and other departments.
Solid Edge Inspector is an add-on program that works with Solid Edge to provide inspection reports and automate the ballooning process and bill of characteristic data generation. Additionally, it facilitates the transfer of inspection data to downstream applications such as quality assurance and inspection programming, as well as the change management process. With PMIs in model-based design, ballooning and the creation of characteristic data are even feasible. Since the solution is completely customizable, following industry norms will be simpler.
Let’s take a closer look at each of these processes. Determining the tolerance standards based on the chosen part would be the first step. We occasionally fail to specify the dimensions’ tolerances. Therefore, in this instance, the dimensions’ tolerance values will be taken from the standards that we choose.
Watch the video for complete walkthrough of the ballooning process.
Watch the detailed video for managing the characteristic data.
Dimensions are inflated using a distinct number. After ballooning is completed, the bill of attributes is automatically filled in. Every design feature is translated into a quality characteristic and shown in the CN table. The CN table can be used for a variety of procedures, including:
- Making changes to the balloon
- Changing the class of dimensions
- Using filters
- Changing the number of columns
- Making annotations in opposition to the dimensions
Watch the comprehensive video to learn how to create FAI reports and export the Bill of Characteristics.
We saw an overview of the Solid Edge Inspector tool and how it facilitates the inspection planning procedure. Because of the solution’s good Teamcenter integration, we can generate and manage inspection data inside of Teamcenter and use it in downstream apps like TC Quality and Opcenter.
- Up to an 80% reduction in inspection planning time because to automatic ballooning and data production from the BoC.
- Respecting corporate policies because the solution is highly customizable.
- Enhanced quality through the process of creating reports and ballooning.
- Product launches with integrated design and quality processes happen more quickly.
