Why Give Preference To 3D Laser Scanning Over Touch Probes With Respect To Manufacturing Quality Control?

It doesn’t matter what is being manufactured on your assembly line, the Quality Control or Assessment system in your plant will only be judged with the quality of its analysts and inspectors. And professionals like those bear any kind of proficiency on the basis of their tools. Laser Scanners have evolved great deal in last two decades and now gear a highly important place in toolkit of quality professionals. These can be used for multiple purposes like part-to-CAD, developing region of in-process measurement, and product inspection. The same stands true for highest level world of automobile manufacturing as well as aerospace engineering.

As a per recent survey that was done to evaluate why laser scanners were preferred so highly by manufacturers, three major reasons came to light: accuracy, speed, and portability. Although there were several other features but, in common, all kinds of professionals preferred these features. Another noteworthy aspect is that people were ready to look over color capture, high-definition resolution, and costs for the abovementioned three factors. It mainly suggests that a laser scanner should not be purchased on the basis of cost alone.

When it comes to 3D laser scanners, these can be divided into two major categories on the basis of data captured by them:

1. Portable handheld and scan arm scanners that are capable of capturing multiple images in a consistent manner.

2. Structured light and white light scanners that capture single pictures of objects.

These two categories can be further divided into other categories on the basis of positioning methods. In structured light and white-light scanners, the tracked 3D scanners like Creaform’s Metrascan 3D or Hexagon’s Leica Absolute Scanners are placed through an outer optical tracking device with the help of markers like active or passive targets. These targets sometimes bind with the scanners and allow those to be positioned in the coordinate system. Scanners of this type are capable enough to offer excellent precision and accuracy and mobility. But these also need trackers for providing a direct and clear line of sight to scanner. These are usually costlier than portable 3D scanners.

On the contrary, the structured light 3D scanners like FARO’s Cobalt 3D, work with one or more camera for positioning themselves through part geometry or targeting. These scanners have an edge over other in terms of resolution, however, these need to perform multiple scans to cover all kinds of complex parts and angles which is very time consuming.

There are a number of benefits of using laser scanners over delicate metrology tools and the base end tools like gauges and calipers. The most major ones are measurement coverage, higher measurement speed, cost-efficiency, and automation.