Hexagon has expanded its integration with GelSight, linking the Absolute Arm measurement arm, GelSight Mobile Series 2 scanner, and VGMETROLOGY Essential software into a single inspection workflow. The update builds on a global partnership the two companies first struck in 2024, and it targets a specific gap on the shop floor: manufacturers typically capture a part's overall geometry and its fine surface defects with separate tools, then reconcile the two data sets by hand.
In the new workflow, the Absolute Arm's optical scan establishes a part's geometry first. GelSight Mobile Series 2 then captures high-resolution surface measurements at specific areas of interest, using technology Hexagon says delivers roughly 1-micron Z resolution, finer than what conventional 3D scanning reliably captures. VGMETROLOGY Essential brings both data sets into a common coordinate system, so a surface flaw shows up in context on the larger scan instead of as an isolated reading. For an engineer chasing a scratch or a porosity defect, that context matters: where a flaw sits on a part often says as much about its cause as the flaw's size.
"Manufacturers have never lacked for inspection data. The challenge has always been bringing it together in a way that's easy to act on," said Brian Winters, product manager for the Absolute Arm at Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence. He said linking the Absolute Arm to GelSight's surface measurements inside VGMETROLOGY gives quality teams "one place to see the whole part, geometry and surface detail together."
Youssef Benmokhtar, CEO of GelSight, said the focus since the 2024 partnership began has been making GelSight's surface data useful in the context of the full part, rather than as a standalone measurement. Tying a defect to its exact location, he said, turns it from an isolated data point into something a quality team can act on immediately.
Hexagon cited one aerospace application where the combined workflow replaced a three-day external analysis process, moving that inspection directly onto the shop floor.
