(Nikon: Tokyo) -- With Industry 4.0 and the interconnection of machines, controls, and software on the shop floor constantly gathering speed, there’s an increasing requirement for inspection devices that can communicate wirelessly. Absence of cabling facilitates integration closer to the point of manufacturing, shortening the closed-loop feedback path of metrology data and, hence, speeding response time while also eliminating having to plan for additional wiring. Consequently, the Industrial Metrology Business Unit of Nikon has developed wireless technology for its laser scanning sensors that’s initially available for the manufacturer’s high-speed LC15Dx and L100 line scanners.

The wireless models have been developed to support a variety of applications, whether they are mounted on production machines or adapted to metrology equipment. Nikon is keen to hear from machine tool suppliers and factory integrators interested in the enhanced usability that the new technology offers. The LC15Dx has particularly high accuracy, whereas the L100, with its longer laser line, is better suited to 3D scanning of large, complex, free-form shapes such as aerospace parts, dies, molds, and gears.

 …