Tofaş is a carmaker founded in 1968 in Bursa (Turkey), where the factory is located. The company manufactures passenger cars and light commercial vehicles. Today, it is one of the largest manufacturers in this sector and, with some 7,000 employees, has an annual production capacity of 450,000 vehicles.
Tofaş manufactures Fiat Egea compact sedans, hatchbacks and station wagons at its Bursa plant. Marketed under different model names and brands worldwide, Tofaş's Egea range is sold as Fiat Tipo in Europe and as Dodge Neon in Mexico. Alongside the manufacture of passenger and commercial vehicles for FIAT and RAM as part of the new Doblò project, Tofaş sells six brands (Fiat, Fiat Professional, Alfa Romeo, Jeep, Maserati, Ferrari) in Turkey. In 2020, Tofaş exported 118,000 vehicles to 80 countries, and the company accounts for 19 % of total automotive production in Turkey.
The Bursa plant's main activity is currently the manufacture of the Fiat Egea car and the Fiat Doblò commercial vehicle, both in short- and long-wheelbase floor-cab versions. It currently produces around 1,000 vehicles a day, requiring a dedicated metrology team to ensure the stability of geometries in relation to processes and products.
The measurement team at Tofaş uses a variety of Hexagon metrology equipment, including 3 Global CMMs. These systems were installed in 2016, in combination with Hexagon's PC-DMIS inspection software, and are used in particular to assess the quality of small parts supplied by third parties. The team also has two Bravo HP CMMs, one with four arms and the other with two. The first version is used as part of a diagnostic system for crates-in-white, and the second to carry out statistical process control measurements in relation to the Fiat Egea model.
While these systems delivered excellent results, the Tofaş measurement team turned to digitizing systems to take advantage of the great benefits offered by non-contact measurement. This revolution began with the Hexagon white-light system used to check closing elements. This was also installed in 2016, and is combined with CoreView software.
The latest metrology equipment is a fully-automated inspection cell, based on
on the Absolute Tracker and Leica T-Scan 5 measurement technology, which is used to measure commercial vehicles made in Bursa. Established in 2020 and controlled by PolyWorks inspection software, the cell has proved its effectiveness and at Tofaş appears to be just the beginning of a process of automating inspection solutions.
"Instead of a CMM, we use digitizing technology, and this offers many advantages.umerous advantages ", says Utku Erdem Kaynar, Metrology Laboratory Manager at Tofaş in Bursa. "It allows us to see many areas and parts of the vehicles."
" We use it in particular to measure body-in-white and closing elements, with features such as surfaces, fit lines, nuts, slots and holes. All parts associated with the body-in-white can be easily measured with these systems. As far as tolerances are concerned, this of course depends on the measurement application, but we deal with sheet metal. The minimum tolerance is therefore ± 0.4 millimetres, and the maximum ± 2 millimetres. This varies, of course, according to the size of the area. "
Tofaş's measurement staff were impressed not only by the quality of Hexagon's metrology equipment, but also by the competence of the local team in Turkey, who assisted them in the planning and implementation of numerous inspection projects.
" We work closely with Hexagon Turkey," explains Recep Boylu, Measurement Center Administrator at Tofaş. " The staff are highly qualified and skilled at solving problems and proposing solutions tailored to our needs. And, of course, they are reactive when it comes to maintenance, which reduces our equipment downtime. We now use Hexagon products exclusively, for both CMMs and digitizing systems. Previously, we had used various machines from other metrology manufacturers, but because of problems with after-sales service and maintenance, we abandoned them and now concentrate entirely on Hexagon solutions, with which we also benefit from excellent support.. "