Exploring 3D Laser Scanners and 3D Measurement Technology
What is 3D laser scanning?
A popular type of measurement tool is the 3D laser scanner. 3D scanners digitally capture and measure the details of physical objects with a line of laser light. They make use of non-contact and non-destructive technology.
3D scanning is mainly used for objects with complex shapes and contoured surfaces. In these cases, due to the great amount of data needed, it is impractical to use traditional measurement methods like gauges, callipers, and coordinate measuring machines (CMM).
The 3D scanning process: Time of Flight Measurement
Light waves from the laser scanning system bounce off surfaces and are reflected back to the sensor. The sensor then calculates how far away the surface is by measuring the time taken for the light waves to be reflected back.
Within a few seconds, the distance measured is used to calculate a coordinate of the surface hit by the laser beam. During a single scan, a laser scanner collects millions of 3D coordinates.
When the point clouds from laser scans are processed, they form a digital representation of the scanned object.
Advantages of 3D Scanning
1. Fast measurement and inspection time
Compared to traditional scanning methods, 3D scanning greatly reduces measurement and inspection time, regardless of the object’s shape or complexity.
2. More accurate for objects with complex shapes and contoured surfaces
3D scanners greatly enhance part coverage as every part of the surface will be hit by the light waves and reflected back to the sensor.
Optical Gaging’s ShapeGrabber 3D Laser Scanners can capture every metric in terms of cloud points. Its precision renders every feature of an object into a 3D model, which can be further augmented or be inspected for defects. Data from this model can also be acquired for reverse engineering.
3. System is easy to use, with powerful software
A laser system is fairly simple to operate. The software used impacts the scanners and vice versa so it is important to make the right choice.
4. Greater safety
With 3D scanning, specs can be met and defects are reduced. This increases customers’ satisfaction and safety. It is important to select the right type of scan heads for different spec measurement requirements.