Harnessing modern technologies for efficient production
WTX Europe – Roubaix, France
Automated tube measurement and machine correction technology has a profound impact on productivity and sustainability
TubeInspect and BendingStudio XT for sustainable transportation | Plume Mobility & WTX Europe, France
“Artificial Intelligence” in the tube bending process
Automated tube measurement and machine correction technology has a profound impact on productivity and sustainabilityWTX Europe has two primary divisions: Wevista focuses on developing crucial metal parts, while Wecosta concentrates on plastic and textile fibres. Centred on the ideals of quality, innovation and sustainability, WTX Europe is more than just an automotive supplier. They demonstrate profound ecological responsibility in their commitment to producing completely recyclable products and in their ongoing efforts to diminish their carbon footprint. Consequently, they stand as partners in sustainability, catalysing a shift towards greener practices without compromising performance or innovation.
As part of their commitment to sustainability, WTX Europe has for the past two years collaborated with Plume Mobility, contributing to the design of the tubular chassis of the ‘Origine France Garantie’ electric scooter. This partnership exemplifies WTX Europe’s expertise in creating a product that embodies their core principles of durability, strength and modern design.
Figure 1. The Plume Allure kick scooter from Plume Mobility, designed in partnership with WTX Europe.
New solutions for new challenges
The tube bending process is complex and often inefficient due to issues related to material variability, tube dimensions, tool wear and temperature changes. This leads to high scrap production, the need for constant adaptation and significant energy consumption. Further, conducting quality checks with steel and aluminium gauges makes the process costly, time-consuming and inflexible.The cell was powered by Hexagon’s dedicated tube inspection software, BendingStudio XT, which connects directly to WTX’s bending machines and automatically feeds back bending routine correction data after inspection to ensure the next production run will be in line with design parameters. This innovation significantly reduces the production of out-of-spec parts.
“It’s a perfectly adapted software,” says Benjamin Fichaux, Product and Process Engineering Manager at WTX Europe. “It has a quite friendly interface, user-friendly for production operators – the controls are simple to discover and use.”
The WTX team immediately began to see the value of no longer needing to place a part in a fixture and taking multiple time-consuming individual measurements in order to produce a compliant part, not to mention the benefit of removing the iterative process of narrowing in on a design compliant bender program, which was highly dependent on operator skill and could produce significant scrap in the hands of even the most experienced worker.
Figure 2. WTX Europe acquired their first manually operated TubeInspect P8.2 cell in 2019.
The future is fully automated
With significant benefits already in hand thanks to the integration of the TubeInspect cell into their production process, WTX Europe were nevertheless still looking to the future. With an eye on the possibilities of Industry 4.0 technology, they again worked closely with Hexagon to integrate a fully automated TubeInspect system within their production line.
Figure 3. The tubular chassis of Plume Mobility’s electric scooter, manufactured by WTX Europe.
“We chose to use a second automatic inspection cell in order to implement a form of artificial intelligence,” explains Fichaux. “That is to say that the tube bending machine will be able to auto-correct itself thanks to the cell. And this also allows us to guarantee that all products that come out are compliant, and for our client, this is a significant quality assurance.”
This new cell, also a TubeInspect P8.2 system, is operated by a manufacturing robot, which loads and unloads bent tubes for measurement. The integrated bending machine measurement cell-robot arm system was supplied by Hexagon’s tube solution integration partner Numalliance.
The technology enables the bending machine to ‘selfcorrect’, reducing the need for consistent human intervention and assuring the conformity of all products exiting the production line. It has all the benefits of the existing TubeInspect integration, with the added potential for even more consistent operation and round the clock operation if needed in the future.
The impact of automated correction
The implementation of the TubeInspect cell has proven to be a game-changer for WTX. “It was a very beneficial gain,” says WTX Europe Plant Manager Najim El Khaouafi. “We went from an average of about 120 minutes for series changeovers to less than 30 minutes.” This freed up time was redistributed to increase machine preventive maintenance and ensure more regular product checks, enhancing efficiency across the board.“The control, the calculation, of the new trajectory, and the transfer, now takes less than three minutes,” explains El Khaouafi. “We went from on average 64 000 pieces to about 100 000 pieces. It has been very beneficial.”
The TubeInspect system has also yielded an impressive reduction in Parts Per Million (PPM) defects, dropping to less than 0.5 PPM, and thereby meeting demanding customer requirements and boosting overall production quality.
The TubeInspect cell’s successful integration transcended technical gains, spreading to greater satisfaction among collaborators, operators and adjusters. In particular, the system permitted WTX to better sync their stock with client requests, as the significantly decreased series changeover time allowed for frequent product changes. This benefited various company segments, from production and logistics to maintenance and tooling services.
With so much positive impact recorded, the future of precision tube production at WTX Europe is looking very TubeInspect shaped.
Figure 4. Final step of handlebar assembly before packaging.
Focusing on sustainability:
TubeInspect avoided emissions at WTX
In 2024, Hexagon’s Avoided Emissions team carried out a study of the WTX Europe production to investigate the sustainability effects of the introduction of TubeInspect systems at the plant since 2019.
Three mechanisms for avoiding emissions at WTX were identified: reduction in the number of scrap parts; reduction of energy consumption associated with producing scrap parts; and the elimination of jigs, fixtures and gauges. Reducing scrapped parts proved to be the primary mechanism.
Upon introducing TubeInspect, WTX Europe was able to reduce scrapped parts by 93%. Of this, 95% was stainless steel, 5% carbon steel.
Avoided emissions were corrected for both the emissions associated with producing WTX Europe’s two TubeInspect machines and their energy consumption. Calculations revealed that each TubeInspect machine avoids 9 tCO2e annually (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents).
Since introducing TubeInspect in 2019, WTX Europe has reduced its carbon footprint by 90 tCO2e. That represents the carbon footprint of more than 19 French citizens. And with every additional unit in operation, WTX Europe’s TubeInspect machines avoid more emissions.
