How Automation Transforms Sheet Metal Inspection

In sheet metal manufacturing, tight tolerances and complex geometries make accurate inspection critical. When productivity constraints limit the number of parts inspected, undetected deviations in thickness, flatness, or in formed, cut, and punched features can accumulate and result in tolerance stack-up issues across assemblies.

Small surface distortions or hidden defects—such as warping, dimensional drift from worn tooling, or deviations caused by springback—can also easily go unnoticed without sufficient inspection. Over time, these variations can compromise quality, reduce repeatability, and make root cause analysis far more difficult. Without enough inspection coverage, sheet metal part manufacturers risk allowing systemic errors to propagate throughout production.

This blog examines the specific challenges inherent to sheet metal inspection, the specific automated quality control (AQC) solution developed to address them, and the gains in accuracy and productivity achieved through their adoption.

Why Sheet Metal Inspection Remains Technically Demanding

Sheet metal inspection presents significant challenges due to the simultaneous need for sub-millimeter accuracy, fast measurement speed, and intuitive operation for technicians. Achieving this balance remains difficult, as existing measurement technologies often force trade-offs between accuracy, speed, and ease of use, limiting their effectiveness in high-volume production environments.

Balancing Accuracy, Speed, and Usability in Sheet Metal Measurement

Coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) offer high accuracy, but their point-by-point probing is slow, creating significant productivity constraints. Conversely, 3D scanners can deliver faster measurements, but generic models may struggle to achieve consistent accuracy and repeatability on sheet metal parts. Both technologies also rely heavily on skilled operators; without sufficient expertise, measurements can be prone to human error or yield results that are difficult to trust.

To reduce human error and increase productivity by inspecting a larger number of sheet metal parts, the natural solution is to automate the inspection process. However, automating all steps of the inspection process and adhering to 3D scanning best practices also present its own set of challenges.

Developing, transferring, and adapting inspection plans—often originating from different software—for 3D scanning can be complex when inspecting hundreds of sheet metal entities, including trims and surface points. Creating robot trajectories that ensure complete coverage while avoiding collisions requires careful planning and expertise. Finally, validating measurement accuracy and ensuring repeatable processes are also critical to achieving reliable results.

Streamlining Sheet Metal Inspection with Automated 3D Scanning

Given these challenges, it might seem easier to rely on CMMs, even at the cost of productivity. However, Creaform embraces the challenge of addressing these complex inspection needs. The engineering team developed a solution that automates every step of quality control while adhering to 3D scanning best practices:

• Automatically transfer and adapt inspection plans for 3D scanning, including those developed in other software.
• Automatically create robot trajectories that ensure complete coverage.
• Automatically validate measurement accuracy and ensure repeatable, reliable processes.

How Integrating the Sheet Metal Add-on in AQC Enables Faster, More Accurate Inspections

Committed to addressing the precise needs of sheet metal manufacturers, Creaform developed a comprehensive solution that integrates both hardware and software. This synergy delivers, with proven results, the best inspection solution for sheet metal parts—ensuring faster measurements, higher accuracy, and fully repeatable processes.

Creaform’s Dedicated 3D Scanner and Software for Sheet Metal

The MetraSCAN-R BLACK+|Elite HD is a specialized 3D scanner designed for parts with numerous edges, trims, and boundaries—essentially, sheet metal components. With 69 laser lines and 3,000,000 measurements per second, it provides an optimized field of view for inspecting even the most challenging sheet metal parts.

The Inspection software, paired with the Sheet Metal Add-On, features advanced algorithms developed specifically for sheet metal inspection. It also employs density indicators—available both in offline simulation and during 3D scanning—to provide intuitive visual feedback through a red-yellow-green color code, enabling rapid validation of measurement accuracy.

Together, this hardware-software combination forms the complete inspection solution that sheet metal manufacturers have been seeking.

Test Results Demonstrating the Strength of Creaform’s Solution

Test results clearly demonstrate the high accuracy of Creaform’s solution. Creaform has scanned 120 sheet metal circles and compared the measurements to the nominal value obtained with a CMM, yielding the following average deviations:

• Position: 10 µm
• Dimension (Diameter): 22 µm

The standard deviations were 16 µm for positioning and 17 µm for dimensions, respectively.

These results highlight that no other 3D scanning solution currently on the market can achieve such accuracy on sheet metal parts. Consequently, the combined solution of the MetraSCAN-R BLACK+|Elite HD and the Sheet Metal Add-On provides a reliable and accurate alternative to the CMM for position and dimension measurements.

Automated Workflow, from Inspection Plan to Robot Trajectory

The Creaform solution goes even further. Inspection plans can now be imported automatically from a CSV file, ensuring error-free transfer of entities from the manufacturer’s Data Management System to the Inspection software. This automatic import capability streamlines the migration of CMM inspection programs, which is particularly valuable for sheet metal parts that often contain hundreds of points to inspect.

Robot trajectories can then be automatically generated from imported inspection plans, using the same density indicators to ensure complete coverage and optimal accuracy. This capability integrates 3D scanning best practices, enabling any user—regardless of robotics experience—to program accurate trajectories correctly on the first attempt.

How Sheet Metal Manufacturers Boost Productivity and Accuracy with Creaform

By entrusting sheet metal part measurements to the MetraSCAN-R BLACK+|Elite HD, manufacturers can boost productivity without compromising accuracy. Compared to a CMM, Creaform’s 3D scanning solution achieved deviations of only 16–17 µm on position and dimension measurements—an unmatched accuracy for sheet metal inspection. In addition, the Sheet Metal Add-On’s density indicators provide intuitive guidance that minimizes human error and strengthens confidence in every result.

Creaform’s advancements in AQC deliver productivity levels well beyond what a CMM can offer. The entire quality control process can now be fully automated—from inspection plan creation and robot trajectory generation to the acquisition of reliable, accurate measurements. The result is clear: higher productivity and a significant reduction in human error.

In short, with Creaform’s dedicated sheet metal inspection solution, a fully automated workflow puts productivity and accuracy finally within reach of every manufacturer.