3D Scanners

[kakerukami]

Hi everybody. I'm looking into purchasing a 3D scanner, and I was hoping someone here might have some experience with one and could give me some expert advice.

If you have any knowledge/experience of any kind with one, if you would give me the brand name and a few of the "actual", user-confirmed specs of the machine I would be forever grateful. The specifications I'm mainly interested in are:

-Resolution
-Reliability/Reproducibility
-Speed of scan
-Ease of use

Much obliged to you all for taking the time to read all of this!!!

 

[drawoh]

kakerukami,

What are you trying to scan?

I may be able to help you.

JHG

 

[amorrison]

Search eng-tips for words scanner 3d

Ten hits.

 

[kakerukami]

Wow, that was pretty quick.

@drawoh: Fantastic!!! I am so glad to hear that. I am trying to find a reliable machine which can accurately scan parts made from opaque nylon less than 10x10x10 cm in size. The parts are complex containing only a few planar faces and mainly being composed of convex and concave surfaces and a few sharp corners and overhangs. I want for this machine to replace an older (and slower) CMM machine I currently have, and I would need it to be speedy yet "dependable" to about 40 microns - I've read that this should be within current scanner technology. I don't believe I need anything with any extra bells or whistles in the post processing department at this time, but I do want ease of use in the point cloud acquisition portion. I think that should just about cover it. Thanks a bunch for any help!

@amorrison: Yeah, I looked through those, and they helped. I was kind of hoping there had been some improvements in the technology or processing software since these topics had been written that someone could enlighten me on. Because according to most of the threads, 3D scanners do not have the resolution I require, but I've been hearing they do.

 

[rb1957]

can you manufacture to that tolerance ?

 

[TheTick]

Be sure to invest enough time and money into postprocessing. I've seen people pay big money for really bad results from really expensive machines. Sloppy postprocessing.

Check out GeoMagic. It is very capable software in the right hands.

 

[kakerukami]

@rb1957: You know I had not even considered that. That's a very good point. I'll bring that up with my manager and the other engineers in my group when I speak to them. I'm coming up with these numbers based on our drafting sheets' tolerances. We use stereolithography to machine and I believe our current setup has given us accurate/repeatable machining around 0.1 mm. That is a very good point.

 

[kakerukami]

@TheTick: Sorry for double posting. I didn't see your post until after I submitted mine. Actually, I'm not worried about postprocessing for exactly that reason. We already acquired licenses for GeoMagic, and we're fairly confident in our GeoMagic ability. I agree with you that it really is a fantastic package, and it's good to hear from other engineers that it seems to be the best possible software for this application.

 

[drawoh]

kakerukami,

Our 3D scanner would not work for you. We build surveying equipment. We would do your building and parking lot, not a 100mm cube.

Is there any reason why a mechanical inspection fixture would not work?

JHG

 

[IRstuff]

How often are you actually going to use it? If it's mostly going to be gathering dust, you might be better off sending it to a commercial service.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[kakerukami]

@drawoh: I'm not quite sure what a mechanical inspection fixture is. Do you mean the CMM machine that we are trying to replace? If so, the reason why is because the CMM cannot handle the throughput demands that we have and its precision is not as we desire. Also, its operation is complicated enough that it takes additional time for our quality personnel to program the routines to run the validation tests. We just want something fast, acurate and precise, and easy. Thanks for your help anyway, drawoh. As I said any help is appreciated. Perhaps you could answer some of the general optical scanner questions I've listed below.

@IRstuff: We will be using this quite often. In the next few months, we'll be using it at least five or six times a day. By early next year, we may be needing more optical scanners.

A few new questions based off of talking to some sales reps. If anyone can answer I'd be very grateful.

-Does multistripe laser triangulation vastly improve structured light digitization greatly? Is it less fussy? More accurate? etc.

-How does conoscopic holography compare with laser triangulation?

-How does laser triangulation compare with structured white light digitization?

 

[juys]

I have been involved with 3D reverse engineering for some time now. My advice would be to be very carefull with claims made by scanner vendors, and not to expect any miracles when starting to use the harware. It almost always takes a lot of experiece and some perserverance to get good results, and you need to have some 3D software experience Personally I have had good experience with the Nextengine scanner. Not same resolution of claims of some other machines, but typically about 1/10 the price. Also keep in mind that a lot of measuring error gets "averaged" out by your software. Good post processing software include Rapidform and Geomagic. Good luck.