Werk24 Digitizes Engineering Drawings with Artificial Intelligence
Engineering drawings are used in all aspects of the Machine Building Industry and are an essential part of its processes. Whether a company receives an incoming RFQ with its associated data or has digitized its entire catalogue of Technical Drawings, knowing what information is on those Drawings is an important aspect of a company’s prospects. Up until now, for specific records to be retrieved, costly labour had to be used to seek out the desired Technical Drawing. Indeed, it has long been the desire in the engineering community to find a way to allow information from (scanned) Drawings to be accessed digitally in an automated fashion, without the need for laborious manual searches.
Werk24 is changing this situation with its TechRead API, an interface that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) to read and extract information from (scanned) Technical Drawings and quickly make it available at a low cost. The future for digitising and interpreting data with AI is here today and can be done for customers now. Importantly, we are years ahead in bringing this technology to market—even when compared to academic research—so businesses for the first time can get access to data locked in Engineering Drawings in a fast and efficient manner through AI.
Capability Beyond OCR
Werk24’s technology goes far beyond OCR (Optical Character Recognition), a standard solution in the market for extracting data from documents. Unfortunately, OCR can only recognize fragmented strings alone with low accuracy, and it is unable to obtain contextual information to interpret and structure fragmented data. This makes OCR an impractical and unreliable technology in getting usable data from Engineering Drawings.
Thanks to AI and ML, not only can TechRead API recognize strings, but it is also able to associate information and translate descriptions into current Material, Fit Size, and General Tolerances standards. This is done with several effective capabilities:
Accessing Title Block Information: Drawing IDs, Designation, Material, General Tolerances, and Revision Tables
Extracting Measures: Nominal sizes, Tolerances (Deviation and Fit Size), Thread, Chamfer
Capturing GD&Ts: the full range of GD&Ts.
Generating a CAD approximation to DXF files: currently only for flat parts.
Explore an example of a technical drawing, showcasing how Werk24's artificial intelligence comprehends and extracts essential information:
Benefits for the Customer
Werk24’s technology brings extensive benefits to its customers. Using TechRead API allows a business to lower their costs by freeing employees from this manual work. Digitization of Technical Drawings from the point of entry automates the process of collecting information and ensures a streamlined process. Using AI and ML, a company can get instant data from Drawings and leverage that information for an instant quote, opening new business opportunities from prospective customers.
Werk24’s Applications
This technology provides a range of helpful possibilities for the customer. Process Automation, Feasibility Checks, Scouting for Suppliers, ERP Integration, Digitalisation of a Drawing Archive, and Anonymizing content are available as means for improving a company’s processes with the use of AI.
The right time for new possibilities to improve a company’s profitability is a matter of availability and timing. Werk24 has enabled the technology for extracting information within Technical Drawings and has likewise made its advancements available to the wider market today. We have formed relationships with industry leaders and disruptors, and we foresee a range of further clients that can utilize our offering to improve their business. We look forward to increasing such relationships now and well into the future.