A Strategy for Logistic Quality Control in Micro Bulk Production

A continuous trend to function integration, miniaturization and densification opens new opportunities in industry and research. To manufacture micro products, tools, materials and technologies have to be scaled down from the macro to the micro domain. Thereby, a downscaling of classical processes leads to unexpected process behavior, so called size effects. Additionally, new challenges arise for in-process quality inspection based on the dimension of the micro products which requires microscopic solutions for reliable quality control. To handle these challenges in mass production, new strategies for the planning of logistic processes with a focus on logistic quality parameters are necessary. This contribution introduces a closed-loop quality control strategy for bulk production in micro cold forming. A discrete event simulation model incorporating characteristics of optical quality inspection and general process parameters allows the quantification of the system's performance.