IMA: an IoT system for collecting and analysing laser cutting data

The problem

Working out whether the machine could hold required measurements from software that did not exist yet, and justifying the development of that software required measurements from the machine. IMA had identified a quality-control system built around an optical laser and wanted to bring it into the production line, but embedded development is the expensive part of the job and nobody wanted to take it on without proof it would work.

How we solved it

In 2024 Quinck built for IMA, a world leader in automatic machinery for processing and packaging pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, food, tea and coffee, the IoT system that measures the quality of laser cuts on parts in motion. The sensor reads every part that passes, the backend processes the samples one by one and carries them to a web dashboard, where an alerting system flags measurements outside the threshold while the line keeps running.

R&D on machinery is expensive largely because of the order in which things are done: you develop the software that will run on the machine, put it in the field, and only then discover whether performance holds. The team turned that order around and built a web simulation of the software, then used it to measure data collection, analysis and display right up to the highest throughput speeds expected. Three steps in all: simulation algorithm, interface software, field test.

Simulating the software costs a fraction of writing it for the machine.

The results

The final test happened on the machine itself, with real measurements at speed instead of simulated data. It confirmed the technical choices and the performance targets set at the start, and gave IMA the proof of fitness it needed in order to decide.