A slightly crooked painting gets most people’s attention, whereas very few people will notice a car door that is askew by less than a millimeter. Catching that imperfection is often reserved for trained personnel on an automobile assembly line.
Some of the largest machinery in the world depends on the smooth operation of tiny ball and roller bearings. Knowing this, manufacturers do all they can to make sure that the bearings they purchase for their equipment are completely free of defects.
CHICAGO—Workers at Ford’s Chicago Assembly Plant have checked the quality of a vehicle’s paint job basically the same way since the plant opened in 1924—by eye. But the factory is now getting a new 3D imaging system that uses 16 computer-controlled cameras to detect the most microscopic grains of dirt in the paint.
