Guaranteed Bottling Inspection
Cognex Corp.'s Checker 101

The automation solutions deployed in Ottakringer Brewery demonstrate the effectiveness and attractive cost/performance ratio of the Cognex Checker 101 sensor. Thanks to its use of the sensor, the Vienna, Austria-based brewery's inspection stations are now able to guarantee that beer crates and boxes of canned beverages contain the correct amount of product.

The brewery business is very competitive, and customer satisfaction is paramount to a brewery's success. Ottakringer, Austria's second-largest brewery, was able to make significant production and quality improvements while reducing costs by using the Checker. Image-based sensors are increasingly assuming the tasks previously performed by standard sensor technology.

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Digital Precision Simplifies Custom Motorcycle Manufacturing
FARO Technologies' FaroArm

For decades, custom motorcycles consisted mostly of one-off bikes, modifications of Milwaukee or Tokyo iron with welded-up handlebars and extended forks. Most of these choppers were assembled in a garage or backyard, where fabrication adhered to the rule of the "military-fine-adjustment" tool: If it doesn't fit, use a bigger hammer.

Today's custom-bike industry has a very different approach and is driven by craftsmen who specialize in form without shirking function. Orange County Choppers of Montgomery, New York, may be the perfect example of this new breed of entrepreneur.

Image aside, these are serious motorcycles. Because the machines that OCC produces are created from the ground up--not modified--the geometry and dynamics of the bikes are fully in the hands of the builders. Axle alignment, chassis balance, torsional stiffness, suspension alignment--all have to be right to allow a rider to tackle winding roads without winding up in the ditch.

The company uses FARO Technologies Inc.'s FaroArm to digitally re-create the exact space required by complex parts. The FaroArm's free-turning joints articulate over the full reach of the model to measure points with an accuracy to 0.0005 in. As points are measured, the image of the surface is re-created on-screen by the FaroArm's software.

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