Product category:
Non-contact, Optical and Laser
News Release from: Laser Design | Subject: 3D laser scanner
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 13 June 2007
Twenty years of 3D laser scanners
Laser Design has celebrated twenty years of supplying 3D laser scanners for aerospace, automotive and electronics companies, as well as medical devices and reverse engineering solutions.
Laser Design, a leading supplier of 3D laser scanners since 1987, celebrated twenty years in business in the spring of 2007 What started as a novel idea in Founder and President C Martin Schuster's mind in 1987 has become a mainstream technology for industries such as aerospace, automotive, electronics, and medical devices that require inspection, reverse engineering, and ultra-precise measurement of parts with complex-shapes or free-form surfaces
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 2 Jan 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Schuster was working for CAMAX Systems , Minneapolis, MN, a CAM (Computer Aided Manufacturing) software company in the mid-1980s that sold its product primarily to plastic moulding tooling manufacturers.
"The idea for a laser scanner was born out of the frustration of recreating actual 3D geometry of existing parts using mechanical touch probe technology that was exceedingly slow," said Schuster.
The mainstream use of CAD/CAM was in its infancy, but expanding rapidly.
Further reading
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Laser Design has announced the PM-300 Extrusion Profile Monitoring System, a high accuracy laser scanning system for monitoring extrusion profiles in real-time.
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Laser Design has selected the FARO Technologies line of FaroArm portable CMMs, to integrate with its new SLP line of 3-D laser scanning probes.
3D laser scanning probes are faster
The next-generation line of 3D laser scanning probes will be available in the second quarter of 2007 from Laser Design.
Designers needed a fast, accurate way to digitise and input complex 3D shapes into computer programs.
The US Navy offered a grant to industry to devise a non-contact technology for scanning propellers and determine wear patterns.
This grant funded the initial research into laser triangulation measurement.
A Minneapolis optics company, Cyberoptics , responded by designing a single-point laser triangulation probe to gather shape data by scanning objects point by point that became the input probe for the first 3D Laser Scanning Systems developed within the USA.
Schuster eventually left the CAM software company with the idea for a faster and more accurate laser scanning device, and in April 1987, incorporated as Laser Design By 1991, the company was pursuing the emerging technology of line range laser probes which split the laser beam into a line of light enabling dramatically faster 3D data capture than is possible with single-point laser probes.
Laser Design then bought a Seattle-based laser scanning technology company, which built one of the industry's first line range laser probes in 1993.
Finally in 1996, after 10 years in the business, Laser Design introduced its own line range laser scanning probes to the market.
The technology was still ahead of its time, and many industries didn't understand the pressing need for it.
One of the early adopters was Karsten Solheim, the founder and designer of the revolutionary Ping golf clubs.
Schuster spoke with him about building a scanner, an idea that Solheim seized.
Because the laser scanning system projects a line of laser light onto surfaces while cameras continuously triangulate the changing distance and profile of the laser line as it sweeps along, the problems of missing data on an irregularly shaped or concave surface are eliminated.
The system measures fine details and captures complex freeform geometry so that the object can be exactly replicated.
Laser scanners quickly measure objects, picking up tens of thousands of points per second, and generating huge numbers of data points without the need for templates or fixtures.
Because the line range laser probe captures data so quickly, it can capture the entire shape of a part rather than just a handful of key dimensions.
Over the years, widespread customer acceptance of non-contact laser scanning has grown dramatically as more and more companies embraced the concept of whole part inspection made possible by laser scanning.
Laser Design has introduced the manufacturing world to part inspection reports that are now a colour-coded graphical representation of the entire part where green means good while red and blue indicate problem areas.
Instead of reams of pages filled with numbers that only a highly trained specialist can decipher, inspection reports are now easy to understand by all levels of management.
The number of laser scanning applications has skyrocketed from the initial use of reverse engineering to first-article inspection, precise measurement, terrestrial laser scanning and high-speed inline inspection.
As mainstream computer hardware and software became more powerful and affordable, the ability to work with large 3D data files (Point Clouds) without needing a super-computer fueled the growth of the laser scanning industry.
Fields as diverse as automotive, aerospace, architecture, archaeology, biomedical, and consumer and commercial electronics as well as apparel have all found an essential use for non-contact scanning technology.
Laser Design's line laser technology has been refined further in the ensuing years and was revamped with the SLP technology in 2006.
Collection capabilities went from 3 points per second (pps) with the original single-point laser probe to 15,000 pps with the first generation of line laser probe in 1996, and now are improved to an incredible 75,000 pps with the second generation SLP laser probes.
"The collection speeds have increased as have the number of applications using laser scanning.
It is not just for plastic moulding any more," said Schuster of the current diverse marketplace.
"We now have high-profile customers who make the latest consumer electronic and telecommunication devices, the NASA Space Shuttle, art museums, as well as universities scanning ancient artifacts." With so many new and developing applications, non-contact laser scanning is coming into its own after many years of not being well understood or adopted.
After more than 10 years of incurring expensive Research and Development and commercialisation costs, Laser Design has been consistently profitable during the last decade and has become a diversified and growing company as it turns 20 years old.
Since many customers have only an occasional need for 3D Laser Scanning technology, Laser Design now offers laser scanning services in addition to laser scanning systems.
The idea was born after the terror attacks of 9-11 when capital equipment spending was severely curtailed worldwide.
The company's scanning services division was greatly expanded with the 2005 acquisition of GKS Inspection Services.
"Our laser scanning services division is a perfect compliment to our systems division," said Schuster.
We are expanding our GKS division worldwide, and are continuously implementing more cutting-edge technologies.
Our technicians are experts in a wide array of advanced metrology techniques." With no end in sight for the advancement of the technology or the proliferation of applications, Laser Design is poised in its 20th year for rapid growth on a worldwide scale.
Schuster reminisced, "We survived during the years when the technology seemed mysterious and magical.
The industry has since caught up with us and with our technology becoming more widely adopted, our focus is on improving our customers' efficiency, quality, time-to-market and ultimately their bottom lines." Laser Design has been the leading supplier of ultra-precise, 3D laser scanning systems and services since 1987.
Used for capturing the 3D shape of objects with complex geometries and free-form surfaces, Laser Design's Surveyor line of automated and portable scanning systems are ideal for 3D scanning applications involving inspection and reverse engineering of complex shaped plastic and metal parts.
The company's patented laser line-probe technology dramatically reduces scanning time by collecting data substantially faster and more accurately than conventional metrology technologies.
Laser Design integrates Geomagic software with its laser scanners to provide complete solutions for reverse engineering and inspection applications.
Headquartered in Minneapolis, the company also has an R and D lab in Seattle, a regional sales and support office in Detroit, and distributors throughout Europe and Asia.
Laser Design also operates GKS Inspection Services, an in-house service bureau division offering complete 3D scanning, reverse engineering, and dimensional inspection services.
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