Bruker Alicona, a metrology company based in Graz, provided the students of the HTL Weiz with a measuring device. Investment in education and youth are important values of the Styrian technology company.
Markus Haas, a teacher of production metrology and quality assurance at the HTL Weiz, says he wants to use the new measuring device to make "surface roughness and profile measurements".
Or rather his students. And they are now perfectly equipped to do so with the versatile optical 3D measuring system for simple, traceable and fast surface measurement. With just one device, users can measure the shape plus the roughness of microstructured surfaces of their components.
Why does HTL Weiz need such a measuring device?
Director Gottfried Purkarthofer, who has been in charge of the school since 2014, is very concerned that his school teaches in a way that is close to industry and relevant to business.
"Manufacturing technology is not just about operating equipment, but above all about interpreting results," he explains. By working on the system, he hopes to put a major emphasis on quality assurance.
In this, he also agrees with Bruker Alicona managing director Urban Muraus, who sees a great need to catch up in terms of quality control in Central Europe and especially in Austria: "We at Bruker Alicona want to inspire. Of course, on the one hand, we want to inspire people to switch from tactile to optical metrology in order to promote innovation and progress.
"But on the other hand, we also want to inspire to a higher level of quality in general. Because that's the only way our industry will remain competitive." What could be more obvious than to introduce young people to quality assurance?
A technical school on the pulse of the economy
Industrial engineering, mechatronics, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and information technology are the branches of the technical college in Weiz. With approximately 1,000 students, it is one of the largest technical training centers in Austria.
Like hardly any other “HTL”, it strives to keep its finger on the pulse of the times and to show students how work is really done in the business world. It was precisely this endeavor that made an impression on the measurement technology expert Bruker Alicona, which is why an initial cooperation agreement was reached back in January.
Now, with the start of school, the system provided has been exchanged for a newer and faster one. Muraus thinks that the school's efforts to be relevant to the economy are definitely worth supporting: "Industry benefits enormously from young people already receiving practical training. The closer students are to the actual working world, the faster they are ready for action. Of course, it's also important to me that they understand the subject of quality assurance in the process and can operate our measuring systems."
Former student put system into operation
The especially amiable commissioning even happened by a former student of the HTL Weiz. Benjamin Anger, now an application expert at Bruker Alicona, did not miss the opportunity to come to his former school to start up the system.
"I would have liked to be able to work with a system like this in the past," said Anger during the commissioning. Let's hope that the measurement work is just as much fun for the current students at HTL Weiz! The first measurement attempts have already been made.
World-wide exporter of measuring technology - the systems of Bruker Alicona
Since 2019, the Styrian supplier of optical, industrial measurement technology Alicona has been under the auspices of the American Bruker Group. Founded in 2001, measurement systems are developed, produced and distributed worldwide at the headquarters in Raaba near Graz. More than 90 % are sold abroad.
Based on the technology of focus variation, Bruker Alicona's measuring systems close a gap between classical coordinate measurement and surface metrology.
