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Laser
Scanner Reduces Time-to-Market by 4
Weeks for Auto Aftermarket Products
A local
automotive after-parts manufacturer is now able to move products to market
four weeks faster after switching from a coordinate measuring machine
(CMM) to a laser scanner.
When company engineers used a CMM to measure interior components,
the limited number of points that they were able to acquire meant that
several weeks were usually required to convert them to a surface model.
They can now collect millions of points in several minutes at a
higher level of accuracy, reducing the time required to produce a finished
CAD surface model to less than a day.
The company produces consoles for mobile video products for sport
utility vehicles and minivans.
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Laser
scanners work by projecting laser light onto surfaces, while cameras
continuously triangulate the changing distance and profile of the laser as
it sweeps along, enabling the object to be accurately replicated. As the
portable scanner sweeps the laser line automatically over the surface of
the part, a dedicated interface card translates the video image of the
line into 3D coordinates. Laser scanners collect thousands of points every
second at a higher level of accuracy that is impossible with contact -
touch probe methods so they are able to accurately digitize much more
complicated parts.
Shortly
before a vehicle launch date, automotive original equipment manufacturers
(OEMs) typically give aftermarket producers a short period of time to
measure components of new models and whoever first brings products to
market often wins the highest market share.
“In this business, the first company to market always picks up
some extra sales,” said the aftermarket manufacturer’s engineering
manager. “Our portable laser scanner helps us generate additional sales
by beating our competition to market.”
In the past, when the OEM
notified aftermarket suppliers that a prototype vehicle would be available
in their facility for measurements, an engineer with hand gauges would
measure critical areas of the vehicle.
The measurements would then be turned over to a designer who would
develop the geometry of the part from the limited number of measurements
that could be collected with manual gauging.
Now engineers can easily carry the laser scanner to the OEM’s
facility and quickly collect data from any component of the vehicle.
“I
looked at a few different systems and discovered that there was no
question that laser scanning could collect a lot more points than a CMM in
a lot less time,” said the local engineering manager.
“When we travel to the OEM’s site, we just have one chance to
get it right. The SURVEYOR PS-1100 from Laser Design, Inc., (Minneapolis,
Minnesota) proved to be the ideal choice for us. We have also almost
always gotten the first prototype right, eliminating the need to do a
second design iteration, which was common in the past. The bottom line is
that we have cut the average time required to go from measurement to
production from 14 weeks to 10 weeks. This means that we can start
generating additional sales and establishing ourselves in the new market
while our competitors are still working on their design.” |
