How a forklift manufacturer uses tablet AR to inspect welded frames

Another company's example, not a Metaverse911 project. We did not work on it. We have left out figures we cannot trace to a named, published source. See our case studies for our own work.

The situation: frame inspection was holding up the line

At this manufacturer's US and European plants, every forklift is built on a heavy-duty welded frame of high-strength steel. The frame's geometry has to be right: errors lead to misaligned engine mounts, hydraulic problems or, at worst, a product recall. Checking each frame had become the main bottleneck in production.

In a dedicated quality bay, inspectors measured many critical points on every frame using calipers, gauges and large custom steel jigs that held the weldment and gave fixed reference points. A complex frame took hours. The work was physically demanding, mentally tiring and carried a risk of repetitive strain, and one missed measurement could cause serious problems downstream.

The jigs were a problem in themselves. Every new frame design, or even a small change, needed a new jig, which could take months and cost a great deal. Jigs took up floor space, needed regular maintenance and calibration, and sat idle much of the time.

The breaking point came with the launch of a next-generation forklift. Its design was the most complex yet, and the new jigs fell badly behind schedule. With the line ready and pre-orders waiting, the inspection bottleneck threatened to delay the whole launch.

What they did: AR inspection on rugged tablets

The manufacturer replaced physical jigs with a tablet-based AR inspection system, rolled out as a full change to its quality process rather than a trial. Inspectors use ruggedised industrial tablets, a mix of iPads and Android devices. The system connects the company's Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) to the factory floor.

Some inspectors had used manual methods for decades and were sceptical at first. After a short, hands-on training programme, they became confident users, and their role shifted from manual measurement to quality auditing.

How it works

• Load the model: the inspector scans a barcode on the weldment or selects the work order. The correct 3D CAD model loads from a secure cloud server, so there is no risk of using an outdated revision.
• Anchor it: the inspector points the tablet at the frame. Computer vision finds key features such as holes, corners and edges, and locks the CAD model over the real part. The overlay stays in place as the inspector moves.
• Walk around: the software guides the inspector through a set sequence of checkpoints. Green means within tolerance, yellow borderline, red a clear deviation. Tapping a point shows its specification, tolerance and assembly instructions.
• Record and report: a misaligned bracket, a misplaced hole or a missing weld is obvious on screen. One tap captures a photo or short video, annotated with the overlay, part number, inspector ID, time and tolerance data. The report goes automatically to the welding department's dashboard.

The IT team made sure there was reliable, high-bandwidth Wi-Fi across a large, steel-framed factory, secured the CAD data and handled the integration with MES and PLM.

Results

The company has not published figures that we can cite, so this section describes the changes without numbers.

• Faster inspection: a frame is checked in far less time than with jigs, so quality assurance can keep pace with fabrication.
• Fewer line stoppages: only correct frames reach assembly, so engine mounts and cabins fit.
• No physical jigs: no design, fabrication, storage, maintenance, calibration or transport of jigs.
• Less rework and scrap, because errors are caught at the source.

The effects spread across the plant. Welders now get an annotated image of a problem as soon as it is found, so they can correct their technique or set-up before making more faulty parts. QA managers use the searchable inspection database to spot recurring issues. Engineers can see which tolerances are hard to achieve and which are tighter than needed, and adjust designs to suit manufacturing.

What it means for manufacturers

Any company that inspects large welded structures with jigs and hand gauges faces the same costs: slow inspections, a new jig for every design change, and errors found too late. Tablet AR replaces the jig with the CAD model the company already has.

The approach also suits workforces that are wary of new technology. Inspectors used tablets they already understood, needed only short training, and saw straight away that the tool made their work easier.

To see where AR could help in your own plant, read our page on augmented reality or talk to our team.