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Digital holographic imaging technology to dramatically improve the competitiveness of the U.S. auto industry

ANN ARBOR, Mich. - Digital holographic imaging technology developed at the University of Michigan has the potential to dramatically improve the competitiveness of the U.S. auto industry within the next five years, according to Dwight Carlson, founder and CEO of Coherix, a high-tech automotive supplier.

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Coherix is introducing optical-based inspection systems that measure assembly-line quality at speeds and definition levels never before achieved. Benefits include significantly improved quality, lower warranty costs, less scrappage and reduced launch and manufacturing costs.

"This is 'leading edge' technology," Carlson notes. "It's what industry experts describe as 'disruptive innovation,' products or systems that have the potential to revolutionize manufacturing processes in the 21st century."

Coherix technology currently has the ability to scan the surface flatness of precision-machined, automotive metal parts and provide pictorial information about surface variations down to a micron within seconds.

Coherix's ShaPix (for "shape picture"), for example, uses tunable-wavelength lasers to illuminate surface areas. Paired with optical equipment and software, ShaPix provides engineers with a 3-D picture of objects being checked.

"We offer automotive manufacturers and their suppliers systems that give them quantitive and intuitive information about their manufacturing processes faster and in more detail than currently available," says Neil Barlow, the company's vice president of product management.

Coherix technology provides a three-dimensional image in three minutes or less. The most common metrology devices currently in use to check component quality are referred to as "coordinate measurement machines" or CMMs. CMMs only touch individual points on a part and take up to several hours to provide results depending on component complexity .

"CMMs provide a low volume of information that also can be difficult to interpret," Barlow points out. "Our ShaPix system provides an easy to interpret picture within seconds."

The ShaPix system consists of two units - a sensor head and a workstation. The sensor head contains an interferometer and holds the parts or assemblies to be measured. The control station houses a computer, lasers, keyboard, mouse and a local area network so that scanner results can be viewed locally or from a remote workstation.

"Right now, our primary focus is providing information on precision milled surfaces that are generally flat," Barlow adds. "In the future, we'd like to expand into other kinds of shapes such as shafts and gears, but we still have some technical hurdles to overcome."

Coherix technology already is saving the auto industry significant amounts of money. An automotive tool-and-die maker recently used a Coherix system to save thousands of dollars in carrying costs. The system provided pictures of a machined component that enabled a production worker to quickly see what had to be done to tweak a multi-million-dollar machine scheduled for customer delivery.

"Using traditional methods, it might have taken hours or days to interpret the data in order to prepare the machine for delivery," Barlow explains. "This type of machine costs $50 million or more. Carrying costs in this sort of situation are tremendous."

Barlow recalls that an automotive assembly plant operated by a Coherix customer recently ground to a halt due to faulty parts.

"It costs an automaker several million dollars per day or more whenever a plant is shut down," Barlow continues. "The manufacturer spent quite a bit of time trying to identify and fix the problem. They sent the part to us to get a different view. We identified the defect in a couple hours and probably saved them tens of millions of dollars."

Coherix provides holographic and optical-based measurement and inspection products to customers in the automotive, aerospace, medical supply and semiconductor industries. "Where a micron matters," Coherix enables its customers to shorten the launch of new products; eliminate launch delays and work stoppages; rapidly start up new machinery lines; empower the employees to take immediate corrective action by making process performance visible; reduce scrap, and lower warranty costs.

Its ShaPixR and I-CiteR products are in operation around the world and perform everyday for companies such as GM, Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Bosch and TRW, as well as multiple semiconductor manufacturers in Asia.

The company is headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., and has an Asia subsidiary (Coherix Asia) based in Singapore.