Augmented reality in laser cutting

“Increasing handling efficiency in multi-order cutting processes by Augmented Reality”

Laser cutters used in industry cut up to 300 parts into a single large sheet metal. To ensure sustainability the amount of waste should always be kept at a minimum In order to do so, parts usually are spread randomly all over the sheet metal rather than sorted. While this optimizes the amount of waste, it makes it more difficult and time-consuming for a worker to identify all the parts and sort them accordingly. The parts on the sheet might differ from one to another and can even belong to different orders or customers.

The objective of this sprint was to develop an Augmented Reality-based (AR) app for operators to distinguish the parts and thereby speeding up the sorting process.

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Sprint description

At the demonstration factory, a laser cutting machine is used to physically cut out sheet metal parts. The CAD data of the metal parts comes from a 3D-CAD Software. The CAD-Model is particularly suited for the sprint purpose as it already has built-in functionalities for AR. By pointing the smartphone or tablet camera at a readily produced metal sheet, the worker sees an AR overlay with the parts highlighted in different colours and with part ID. The colour is the first indicator on which parts belong to the same batch or order. Tapping on a part allows for a deep-dive, offering detailed information related to this particular part.

The worker is thus able to match all parts to the various orders through a simple and user-friendly AR-guided visual application. This way, sorting can be sped up by 28%, increasing the amount of productive value adding work time.

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Involved E4TC member companies
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