Setting the Pace

ZEISS systems strengthen the competitiveness of TCG UNITECH

Automotive supplier TCG UNITECH went from being just one of many die casting companies to an industry leader in just a few years. To remain competitive, the Managing Directors at the headquarters in Kirchdorf, Austria decided to add a ZEISS computer tomograph to their existing system fleet comprising 16 ZEISS coordinate measuring machines and two ZEISS microscopes.

Officer at TCG, explained to company management why the investment in a computer tomograph would pay off for the casting company. The engineer‘s calculations won out, and a ZEISS METROTOM 1500 has been in use right next to the production line at the Kirchdorf site since 2016. What is the greatest benefit of the system according to David Demmelmair, Head of Quality Management at TCG and Klaffenböck? “We can now determine whether the porosities detected are air pockets or shrinkage very quickly and, most importantly, reliably”, says Klaffenböck. Thanks to the ZEISS METROTOM 1500, TCG can now combine potential changes to the component directly with die casting process parameters and take targeted countermeasures if there are errors. Yet process optimization is not the only advantage of this CT scanner: now quality managers no longer have to perform additional measurements with other machines. “Instead of four quality-assurance inspections, we just measure once on the ZEISS METROTOM”, reports Klaffenböck. The particular locations on the components were ground down and then analyzed under a mi- CT scanner for reliable results Over two years ago, Rene Klaffenböck, Head of the Lab team and Environmental

croscope, a process that took several hours under the best conditions. Meanwhile, other potentially defective parts were still being produced. Klaffenböck knows that this is all a real time saver. And that is not all: with new orders, another advantage of the CT scanner has come into play. “For new parts or sampling, we now receive a complete, detailed image, and tool correction is fast and efficient with ZEISS Reverse Engineering

software,” says Demmelmair. Moreover, customers have corroborated the promising initial results at TCG. “This has sped up approval for batch production,” says Demmelmair. Finally, Demmelmair and Klaffenböck expect that computed tomography will save automotive suppliers both time and money. However, the introduction of the CT scanner has hardly made the company‘s coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) superfluous. “They are still an indispensable part of the quality assurance process for machined, ready-to-install parts,” says Demmelmair. Ahead of the competition Demmelmair and Klaffenböck are bringing their CT know-how to the CT Real research project headed by the Austrian Gießerei-Institut. One of the key project‘s focal points is on developing a standard for the reliable measurement of die cast parts with a computer tomograph. Klaffenböck illustrates by just how much his company is leading the way in terms of expertise. Reducing the measuring times with the CT scanner is at the top of his to-do list. “This is a challenge we can only tackle with ZEISS’s assistance,” says Klaffenböck, who is as enthusiastic about the partnership with the optics company as Demmelmair. All 16 coordinate measuring machines and the two microscopes are ZEISS systems, as are the styli and the temperature monitoring system, ZEISS TEMPAR. Bundling ZEISS expertise has resulted in outstanding synergies. Thus we can use the measuring programs written in CALYPSO for the

virtual inspection of the characteristics from the volume models created with the ZEISS METROTOM with only minimal adjustments.

One of the key project‘s focal points is on developing a standard for the reliable measurement of die cast parts with a computer tomograph