Industry 4.0 is the current hot trend in manufacturing, and one of the adjectives used to label new projects. The concept is primarily a way to describe how automation or “smart” systems enable manufacturers to drive costs down and increase quality. The sense of those words is magic to those seeking the holy grail in quality: “How can I build it better and faster without having to work harder?”

The large-volume metrology industry is an effective, fundamental resource to help meet the goals of Industry 4.0. Almost every technological development in metrology systems for both hardware and software has been implemented or employed to help build complex large-scale systems faster, more precisely, and at a lower net cost for fabrication systems. A major driver accelerating the effect and value of metrology systems is the maturity of their software automation interfaces. These interfaces are enabling engineers to treat these ever-more precise and flexible systems as sensors within the fabrication processes. They provide real-time closed-loop corrections to assembly systems.

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