InnovMetric Expands PolyWorks Digital Thread with Key Partnerships

InnovMetric, a renowned independent software development company, recently announced an exciting expansion of its PolyWorks Digital Thread initiative. This new program aims to accelerate the digitization of manufacturing processes by collaborating with software solutions in engineering, manufacturing, and quality control. The initiative will facilitate seamless digital data exchange among various software applications, ensuring interoperability of measurement inspection data from a single reliable source.

In today's manufacturing landscape, companies are increasingly adopting optimal solutions from multiple vendors to advance their digitization efforts. However, this often necessitates smooth data integration across different software systems. Currently, dimensional management processes within engineering, manufacturing, and quality control are predominantly reliant on file-based data exchanges. This can result in significant issues, such as having the same dimensional inspection information scattered and duplicated across various locations.

The PolyWorks Digital Thread allows partner companies to digitally connect their software solutions with the PolyWorks Universal Measurement Software Platform and central data management server. This connectivity automates the data flow necessary for providing dimensional inspection information to quality control departments and allows organizations to harness digital twin outputs and 3D measurement data across their operations. Marc Soucy, CEO of InnovMetric, emphasized, “Our PolyWorks connectors encompass a wide range of applications and processes, and we plan to add even more connectors in the future. The utilization of 3D measurement data is rapidly growing, along with the applications that benefit from it. This challenge is too substantial for us to handle alone; hence, we’ve decided to partner with software companies to develop and commercialize digital connectors that exchange 3D measurement information between PolyWorks and their solutions.”

InnovMetric proudly welcomes High QA, AutoForm, and Duwe-3d as the first business partners of the Digital Thread initiative, each bringing unique capabilities to the table.

High QA

High QA is a leader in providing integrated manufacturing quality management software solutions to major manufacturers of all sizes. Their software optimizes and automates the entire quality assurance process through automated data extraction and contextualization, creating clear, traceable, and consistent Bills of Components (BoC). Their PolyWorks Digital Thread connector is integrated with the HQA Connect software, enabling quality assurance personnel to automatically balloon 2D drawings using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). This seamless digital integration allows measurement personnel to automatically sync dimensional requirements from ballooned drawings to PolyWorks|Inspector™, eliminating interpretation errors and expediting inspection project creation at record speeds.

High QA plans to further expand the interconnectivity of HQA Connect and PolyWorks®. They are set to stream inspection results from the PolyWorks|DataLoop™ central management 3D measurement server and introduce automation in generating quality assurance reports such as First Article Inspection (FAI) and Production Part Approval Process (PPAP). This will enhance the efficiency and accuracy of leveraging dimensional inspection data within the 360 Core reporting and analysis software solution. Sam Golan, Founder and CEO of High QA, noted, “By building the digital thread that connects quality teams and manufacturing teams in collaboration with InnovMetric, we will facilitate smarter, faster, and more accurate work processes.”

AutoForm

AutoForm specializes in providing software for the manufacturing processes associated with die-press forming and Body-in-White (BiW) assembly. Their products help define optimal processes during the process engineering stage, avoiding expensive quality loops during prototyping and manufacturing phases. Through their partnership with PolyWorks, AutoForm enables automotive manufacturers to conduct virtual dimensional inspections using simulation models in the process engineering phase. The collaborative usage of AutoForm Forming and AutoForm Assembly allows for precise dimensional inspection via PolyWorks|Inspector, enhancing manufacturing process accuracy and efficiency. Furthermore, leveraging PolyWorks|DataLoop enables real-time sharing of inspection data and measurement results with quality management and engineering teams, achieving a seamless integration between the manufacturing environment and digital settings.

This new digital twin and 3D measurement-based process significantly reduces the number of iterations in tooling and assembly processes. Additionally, process engineers and quality controllers can identify dimensional issues as early as 12 to 18 months before tooling and production begin. Engineering teams can utilize detailed deviation analyses between simulation models and baseline dimensions to further enhance simulation accuracy. Olivier Leteurtre, CEO of AutoForm, remarked, “By building a digital twin-based process, we optimize the process engineering and achieve cost savings of approximately 5 million euros per automotive project annually. Also, we firmly believe that introducing dimensional inspections at the early stages of process engineering can potentially save millions.”

Duwe-3d

Duwe-3d has maintained a business partnership with InnovMetric for 25 years and serves as the exclusive distributor of PolyWorks® Master in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. They provide customized PolyWorks software extensions tailored to specific customer needs and applications. The expansion of the PolyWorks Digital Thread partnership has been facilitated by an experimental virtual clamp plugin developed for PolyWorks|Inspector. This plugin is designed to streamline the inspection process of pressed parts. By applying virtual clamping forces through simulation software, it allows for the deformation of 3D models of unclampt plates just like they would appear when actually clamped. This tool eliminates the need for creating individual inspection fixtures for sheet metal parts, resulting in faster inspections and reduced tooling costs.

Claus Knoll, CEO of Duwe-3d, shared that their customers, such as Porsche Leipzig, have already integrated PolyWorks® with virtual clamping technology for parts inspections. “In proof of concept with other OEMs, reductions of up to 60% in costs and time have been confirmed.” The virtual clamp plugin is currently in beta testing and is expected to be commercially released within the year.

InnovMetric is actively discussing further collaborations with additional companies to expand the PolyWorks Digital Thread partner program. This effort aims to offer manufacturers the capability to centralize their dimensional inspection data management, thereby enhancing data utilization across organizations.

About InnovMetric

InnovMetric is an independent software development company that supports the digital transformation of 3D measurement processes for manufacturers of all sizes. Since its inception in 2000, InnovMetric introduced point cloud-based dimensional inspection and conceptualized the universal 3D measurement software platform in 2006, revolutionizing the 3D measurement industry. Today, their PolyWorks® solutions are utilized by over 23,000 companies across 100 countries, with major global manufacturers adopting their software as their standard 3D measurement platform. InnovMetric is focused on developing next-generation digital data and process management technologies.

For more details on InnovMetric’s mission, personnel, and passion for innovation, check their promotional video.