GKS’s veteran metrologists have performed many unusual scans in their careers. Some that have come to the fore in the recent years range from small objects and parts like molded plastic parts to really big projects including huge oil drilling platforms in the ocean and an entire prison compound, decommissioned of course.

Mystery Science Theater 3000, an award-winning television comedy, created many unique puppet characters in the course of its 20-year existence. Producers wanted to create a collector’s item of one of the show’s robot characters. They knew that 3D laser scanning would provide the most accurate and detailed model from which realistic figures could be easily manufactured.

Fact or fiction?: Data acquired with 3D scanning is inferior to that acquired via touch probe and CMM——This is FICTION! 3D scanning captures tens of thousands of points per second, an enormous amount of data that makes the process statistically superior. What other misconceptions about 3D scanning have you heard (and maybe believed)?

This Laser Design success story is from Kimberly-Clark, who utilized their 3D scanning system to help save them $500,000!

Turbine blades, made of curved vanes on a central rotating spindle, are everywhere. They whirl in everything from jet engines to wind-and water-power generators. They are even part of refrigeration processes and new tidal facilities that produce electricity. However, turbine blades of all sizes present a difficult challenge to their manufacturers: accurately producing and maintaining their complex free-form surfaces and convoluted shapes.

In the competitive speed-driven manufacturing environment of today’s consumer electronic device market, extreme speed and accuracy are mandatory. However, the complexity of shapes and details on the devices create a major speed bump on the road to rapid CAD models.

Time Compressions explored the topic: What do you do if you have a die or mold that was made long ago and you don’t have any computer-aided design (CAD) data for it? What do you do if you have a model that was crafted by a sculptor and you’d like to use it for a product?

We at GKS know that laser scanning technologies have advanced tremendously in the last several years. Manufacturers who have adopted them now have many choices to make when they want to digitize their parts: what accuracies are necessary for the application, how quickly they need the data, and what format the scan files are.

In an effort to streamline their verification process, a well established foundry turns to GKS to perform 3D laser scanning on castings.

Didrick Medical, Inc. designs and fabricates active-function artificial finger prostheses for partial finger amputees contacted GKS about doing scans of two small hand casts for which they were creating prosthetic devices. The devices are body-powered, light-weight, and allow users to regain complete control of the flexion and extension movements of an artificial finger. The owner needed 3D digital CAD model files that are used in manufacturing to create custom prosthetics more cost effectively for a larger market.

When you think of "Medicine" what comes to mind? An emergency room full of accident victims? A researcher curing diseases in the developing world? Or just getting rid of your own annoying low-back pain? What you probably don’t think of are high-precision non-contact scanning technologies.

Many industries are now benefitting from the increased speed of 3D laser scanning to significantly reduce the time required for product development, functional analysis, and inspection of their products.

When our client first used Laser Design's Surveyor DS laser scanning system, he expected to acquire clean, accurate scan data; his expectations were beyond met. What he didn't expect was the ability to use the same scan data in many ways, from design and first article inspection, to training, saving his company both time and money in the process.

The National Park Service’s Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho contains the largest concentration of Hagerman Horse (Equus simplicidens) fossils in North America. The NPS paleontologists at the Fossil Beds were curious about the technology of 3D scanning, but had never used it in their research.

One issue that has been common in reverse engineering scanning projects for all industries over the years is making sure that customers know exactly what type of CAD file deliverable they want from GKS based on what they will be doing with the data and their budget.

Today another revolutionary technology is challenging the surveyor’s world of two-dimensional flat drawings and blueprints of buildings, bridges, and landscapes. Three-dimensional large-scale laser scanning has been making inroads for over 10 years, but the paradigm shift is still in the works.

3D laser scanning offers tremendous time savings and cost benefits for the metal fabricating and sheet metal forming industry. Most importantly, it provides the ability to reverse engineer and inspect complex parts, assemblies and tooling to a higher level of accuracy and in a shorter period of time than with other methods.

25 years of successful laser scanning around the globe—download our portfolio, check out some of our work and learn more about 3D laser scanning!

Dentistry’s roots date back to prehistoric times when the practice consisted mainly of tooth drilling and extractions. Today dentists, orthodontists, and oral surgeons need advanced technologies to support their advanced care of the teeth, gums, and supporting bone structures.

A CMM based Laser Scanning system represents a complicated measurement tool, whose accuracy and repeatability can be difficult to gage, especially when you add a 4th axis and ball matching to the mix. In the past, system accuracy was estimated by simply adding the CMM machine accuracy to the stated laser probe accuracy...

The laser probes collect dimensional data in their own reference frame, and in their own field of view which is typically small compared to the objects being digitized. For these reasons, the probes are usually connected to some kind of motion control system, to move the probe over the part, or the part under the probe, and the two reference frames must be coordinated. This document discusses the interfacing issues when attaching an LDI laser probe to a motion transport, such as a CMM or CNC.

A solution to the worn tooth conundrum in primate functional anatomy. Department of Anthropology- University of Arkansas

A wide range of moldmakers are adopting the emerging technology of 3D Laser Scanning in order to improve the accuracy and substantially reduce the time and cost of reverse engineering and inspection tasks. 3D Laser Scanners capture up to 50,000 coordinate points every second, drastically improving reverse engineering and inspection speed and accuracy. Using a laser scanner instead of a touch probe based digitizer or touch probe scanning device mounted on a machining center or CMM (Coordinate Measuring Machine) for reverse engineering / inspection can help a mold builder attract new business and therefore increase the proportion of time that these machines can be utilized for their intended purpose. Laser scanners also can dramatically reduce first article inspection costs for injection molded parts by graphically presenting on a screen exactly how the entire shape of the first article part compares to the design intent (CAD model).

Laser scanners capture thousands of points every second, drastically improving reverse engineering and inspection speed and accuracy. As a result, many companies are either replacing their Coordinate Measurement Machines (CMMs) with laser scanners or purchasing laser scanners instead of CMMs as they expand their operations. But other companies are looking at the large investments they have made in their existing CMMs and asking if they can be preserved or enhanced by equipping them with a laser probe.

At Laser Design, laser scanning technology has been adapted for a variety of high-tech solutions to common challenges faced by manufacturing companies around the world. How does Laser Scanning work? What does Laser Scanning do? What is the future of Laser Scanning?