Screening Eagle´s brand, Proceq, has been announced as the winner of the Innovation Awards 2021/22 by the Swiss Institute for Quality Testing (SIQT). This is the second consecutive year the company has been recognized as Top Innovator by the SIQT.
The Swiss Institute for Quality Testing is now honoring Swiss companies for the second time that have distinguished themselves through particular innovative strength. This year, the focus was on no less than 1,784 companies that were granted 7,941 patents worldwide in the approximately 130 main classes of the CPC patent system. The companies whose score (a combination of patent number and citation values) was among the top 10% in their industry were honored.
Proceq has been delivering Swiss quality sensors since 1994 and has since become a global leader in GPR sensor manufacturing and subsurface applications. Proceq also has a powerful objective for portable ultrasonic flaw detection in metal, composites, and plastic materials.
This is one of several recent awards highlighting how Proceq and Screening Eagle Technologies continuously belong to the top group of the most innovative companies in the country.
With ZEISS Visioner 1, ZEISS is launching an innovative digital microscope that for the first time enables all-in-one focus in real time thanks to its Micro-mirror Array Lens System (MALS™). With its extended depth of field, users in their quality control and quality assurance applications in manufacturing can for the first time see the sample completely in focus without having to combine different focal planes from a series of images or post-process them. This not only simplifies the imaging and documentation process, but also allows for faster inspection and therefore higher throughput.
Conventional inspection systems are always challenged by a shallow depth of field, especially at high magnification. This means that only a small area of the sample is in focus, which can lead to features being overlooked and the inspection being incomplete as a result. Extensive refocusing to obtain an extended depth of field, or post-processing, is a solution to this problem, but it is time-consuming and complex. "This is simply a result of the laws of optics," explains Dr Robert Zarnetta, Head of Industrial Microscopy Solutions at ZEISS. "Even with the ZEISS Visioner 1, we can't break this law, of course, but we can bend it in some ways."
The key to this lies in MALS™ technology - the so-called Micro-mirror Array Lens System. This is a micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) consisting of a complex of small mirrors measuring 100 x 100 µm. These can be individually adjusted to generate "virtual" lenses with different curvatures and thus focusing planes. This allows the digital microscope to sharply image any point on the sample. "What's really revolutionary about this is that we can adjust the micro-mirrors so quickly that the image display to the user is in real time," says Zarnetta. The result is 100 times greater extended depth of field than conventional digital microscopes. It also provides the ability to optically inspect for height differences of up to 69 mm without the need to move the optical system or refocus the sample. 3D information of the sample is visible at a glance, enabling faster and more reliable inspection. Ergonomic operation, fast visualisation and documentation.
For users, this creates tangible benefits in their daily practice. ZEISS Visioner 1 speeds up the inspection process, allowing more components to be inspected in less time. In addition, the elimination of the tiring view through eyepieces and the manual readjustment of the microscope noticeably improves the ergonomics at work. The real-time display of a fully sharp specimen on a screen enables a healthier posture and better concentration on the actual inspection and documentation tasks.
And the combination of full inspection at a glance with the intuitive, workflow-oriented ZEISS ZEN core software significantly simplifies inspection and documentation - especially relevant for highly regulated industries with extensive verification requirements such as automotive, aerospace or the medical industry that rely on complying with GxP guidelines.
"With ZEISS Visioner 1, we are convincingly solving a fundamental problem in microscopy that affects our customers every day," says Robert Zarnetta. "Directly linked to this is a practical benefit for our customers in the form of a significant increase in their productivity and greater certainty in their inspection results."
The new logic of dynamic modification of the recently presented ZEISS GUARDUS module for the active operator guidance considerably accelerates the assembly processes once more. Depending on the employee’s qualification and the frequency of the assembly operations which are carried out, the module of the “Manufacturing Execution System” (MES) now dynamises all the steps in which a confirmation is mandatory. In this way, the new employees learn the work in an efficient and secure way within a process with a strict workflow while the experienced employees only have to confirm the process steps in which the operator is obliged to provide proof. If the product is modified or another variant of it is manufactured, the defined dynamic modification automatically intervenes in the severity level of the operators’ guidance.
The basis of the new dynamic modification is the MES module for the active operators’ guidance. In order to enable each action in the assembly to take place in a rapid and reliable way, the ZEISS GUARDUS components provide all the inspection and assembly instructions online at the workplace by way of intuitive interfaces. For each production order, the MES generates the related assembly order in a completely dynamic way wherein the unplanned actions, such as cancellations, interruptions or repetitions, are also taken into consideration.
Due to the fact that the process control and economic potentials of the dynamic modification are now combined, the users are provided with more performance and quality, whereas the MES module for the employees’ qualification offers a current overview of all the required performance characteristics for each workplace, process or reel as well as the exact assignment to the respective employee. On this basis, all the relevant correlations between the employee, task, competence profile and the necessary operators’ guidance can be visualised. The logic of the dynamic modification of all the correlations necessary for the shift is found overall in the database of the MES and sets the degree of the operators’ guidance for each employee individually.
“The interlacing of dynamic modification and process control is a source of enormous potential for our users: From now on, you can combine the necessary performance in the assembly processes with efficient process safety due to the dynamic operator’s guidance”, says Simone Cronjäger, CEO of Carl ZEISS MES Solutions GmbH.
