Positioning, Dosing, and Measuring Solutions for a Precise, Fast, and Economic Production and Process Monitoring

Markets are more dynamic than ever. Together with ever shorter innovation cycles and the growing range of products and new technologies, the expectations of end customers with respect to the availability, performance, and price of the solutions have grown as well. This poses huge challenges for manufacturers: Increased productivity and quality, more efficient and flexible production processes, shorter production times, and lower costs.

These requirements make it necessary to develop more powerful and smarter automation solutions – both in production and also process monitoring. For plant and machine manufacturers, this means that the precision, throughput, reliability, and scalability of production systems are becoming increasing decisive factors. Development and delivery times, operating costs, and optimizing the solutions to meet the requirements of digitalization and industry 4.0 are also important factors when it comes to creating a competitive advantage in a global environment.

Every component and every subsystem must be selected and designed so that they contribute to achieving the desired performance of the application. This also applies to positioning, dosing, or measuring tasks.

In laser materials processing, it is important, e.g., to synchronize the movements of the workpiece, laser, and laser scanner in order to utilize the potential of modern laser sources and be able to cut thin glass panes at a high throughput without the need for any reworking or drill the smallest vias, for example. To ensure reliable quality assurance processes, components or test equipment must be moved precisely and with a high degree of repeatability.

Dosing in the microliter or even nanoliter range is required for the precise connection of electronic components or to create complex microstructures in additive production processes such as direct ink writing (DIW).

Numerous highly automated technologies also require solutions that enable the contactless monitoring of processes, machines, and systems in order to guarantee the quality and throughput of products.

A wide range of technologies, many years of experience in precision positioning and piezo technology, and a modular approach enable PI to respond to the specific requirements of each application, support customers around the world, and achieve the required level of performance for the process or machine: From single components through to complex multi-axis solutions, including their control systems and application software.