All Profile Cutter (APC)

In conjunction with HGG and EyeRa, Quest Innovations has developed the world's first integrated multi-camera vision application for a 3D robotic profiling machine.
After a period of internal usage, this newly developed top-of-the-line profiling machine APC (All Profile Cutter) has now been released for customers. The APC was developed in-house and HGG thoroughly tested its speed, user-friendliness and functionality within its own cutting service centres. The system is developed to be able to process with high precision a wide variety of tubes and beams. The Kjellberg High Definition Plasma system, combined with a Staubli robot can rotate 360 degrees around the material providing an unparalleled cutting result.
Using a integrated vision system, a combination of 4 lasers and 8 digital cameras developed by Quest Innovations, the APC is able to quickly measure a wide variety of material shapes with an accuracy of 0.1 mm. The system perceives and consequently displays discrepancies of the material. These deviations are in turn related to the theoretical dimensions whereupon the robot automatically compensates the alterations in the cutting process.
Beams and tubes are practically always subject to deformation, unstraight flanges, an off-centre body or a deviating radius at the corners of hollow sections render the cutting process a difficult procedure. The new vision measuring system in the APC is the ideal solution to achieve a perfect cut and provides another step towards a fully automated process.