3D Engineering Solutions is an engineering service provider in Cincinnati, Ohio, with more than 100 years of collective experience in aerospace manufacturing and quality assurance. Recently, working with Akron based Myers Motors, the company expanded into the automotive market with its latest project, a mass-produced three-wheel NmG (No more Gas) personal electric vehicle.
The engineering design team needed a portable, laser-based system to capture data from the NmG vehicle for modeling and reverse engineering. The older technologies of hand gauges, calipers and fixed CMMs simply could not perform fast enough.
A thorough search for available laser technology found that the FARO Laser ScanArm met their needs. The scanner is easy to use and captures data quickly and accurately. 3D engineers now use it to inspect, measure and provide engineering services to its customers.
The engineers use this high-speed, portable laser system to collect information faster than traditional methods. The ScanArm collects up to 45,120 points per second, which can then be exported into PolyWorks point cloud software. The data are then used to make three-dimensional models and reverse engineer parts into CAD. The goal was to then use the collected data to figure out how to design the parts for economical mass production.
What used to take weeks can now be accomplished in a matter of hours. They were able to develop computer models for all 42 parts in the NmG vehicle in only three days. Data collection would have taken months to do prior to acquiring the scanner.
“The amount of data collected in a matter of hours with minimal setup time is comparable to that which would take days or even weeks by previous conventional inspection equipment methods,” said James T. Irwin, president of 3D Engineering Solutions.
3D gains new customers daily after demonstrating their capabilities with the FARO ScanArm. “Our ability to dramatically reduce data collection and analysis time is an advantage that even small job-shop manufacturers can afford,” said Irwin. MPF
FARO Technologies
www.faro.com
