3D Scanners launches ModelMaker W Series

3D Scanners launches ModelMaker W Series

3D Scanners launches ModelMaker W Series

Keywords: Scanners, Laserscanning

New ModelMaker laser scanners make reverse engineering a fast and effective reality

A new range of digitising laser scanners from 3D Scanners is set to bring together traditional and modern modelling techniques by clearing the way for fast, accurate and affordable reverse engineering. The ModelMaker W Series offers a real time link between physical objects and CAD models, thus enabling designers and stylists to work with traditional model making techniques while taking full advantage of everything that modern solid and surface modellers have to offer.

"CAD systems today are as powerful and affordable as they have ever been, but they can't offer everything", says Jim Clark, business development manager at 3D Scanners. "Many designers are unwilling to give up the hands-on approach to styling, feeling that the tactile feedback you get from working in clay or wood is the best way of turning their ideas into reality. Our ModelMaker technology actively encourages such methods while opening up a quick and easy path to CAD - and therefore manufacturable parts - at the same time."

Other applications for ModelMaker reverse engineering include remodelling parts for which no drawings exist and inspecting manufactured components as part of quality control.

The ModelMaker is the world's most versatile industrial laser scanning system. Its handheld scanning head is easy to use, robust, portable and accurate, and its non-contact nature makes it suitable for all types of material including soft or delicate surfaces such as foam, rubber or clay. And unlike some systems, which depend on specific reflective behaviour, ModelMaker requires no prior surface treatment and can work in practically any lighting conditions.

When used with an industry standard co-ordinate measuring machine (CMM) arm, it offers the perfect combination of speed and accuracy, typically capturing more than 14,000 data points per second. The density of the captured data means that, in effect, surfaces are captured digitally in real time.

The new W Series improves on its predecessor (the H scanner) in three important areas:

1. 1.

   Its performance has been improved twofold, now scanning at a rate of 25 laser stripes per second. As a result, scans can be completed twice as quickly as before, or twice as much data can be gathered in the same time, depending on the user's priority.

2. 2.

   While the H scanner came in just one size, there are now three different sized stripe widths to choose from. These range from the 35mm stripe width, suitable for capturing small parts and fine details with high accuracy, through the general purpose 70mm to the 140mm model, which offers accurate high speed coverage on a much larger scale.

3. 3.

   Finally, the ModelMaker system has been made much easier to use through enhancements to the software which interprets the scanned data.

"To record enough data points to define a complex surface with traditional CMM techniques could take several days, and even then you may have only a couple of thousand points," says Jim. "ModelMaker can record hundreds of thousands of points in just a few strokes and the W Series takes this to even higher levels of speed and accuracy. It is the ideal bridge between physical models and freeform CAD surfaces."

For further information, contact 3D Scanners (UK) Ltd, The TechnoCentre, Coventry University Technology Park, Puma Way, Coventry CV1 2TT. Tel: +44 (0) 24 7623 6575; Fax: +44 (0) 24 7623 6576; E-mail: contact@3dscanners.co.uk; Web site: www.3dscanners.co.uk