Scanning Without Boundaries

I remember having a conversation with a professor at Durham College many years ago about the future of measurement.  He hypothesized that one day we will just wander around the factory floor, aim a probe at an object and automatically gather data and measure, of course there were no wires!!

Wait till I show him the NDI Optical CMM with a laser scanner!! You just aim and spray it's just like painting.  Oh yes and the part can move too without any re- acquiring of datum's.  Many people approach this technology with skepticism; I mean it's too simple to be true isn't it?

Northern Digital (a Canadian Company) have integrated a Perceptron scanner to their successful line of Optotrak Portable CMM,s and it works!

 Providing you are in the measuring range of the Camera the hand held scanner will merrily gather millions of points of data and provide the graphic output instantaneously.

Some of the benefits of this system are:

• Portable and fast to set up. Take it anywhere measure any where, why take large parts off the machine tool?
• Optically tracked, allowing for real world situations including vibrations and part movement
• No laser beam to accidentally block during scanning. You can walk through the measuring area without fear of inspectors threatening your life!
• Non-contact scanning allows for measurement of precious artifacts and soft materials.  Part deflection is a thing of the past   
• Collect data at faster rates than conventional measurement techniques. Like maybe 1000 times faster!
• Change easily between touch probes and Laser.

 With the Perceptron handheld laser scanner, operators simply walk around large parts or assemblies and perform freeform scanning. The handheld scanner is as simple to use as a paintbrush. By freely waving the handheld scanner over the part, surface measurements are rapidly acquired to produce dense point clouds, defining the part's geometry. Because it is not physically attached to another measurement system, the scanner can be easily positioned to ensure exceptional coverage of the part. This unrestricted freedom and range of motion is achieved by using the OPTOTRAK optical position sensing system to constantly measure the position and orientation of the handheld laser scanner during the scanning process. The system ensures that all measurements are reported in a common frame of reference. The reported graphical data on the monitor has the look and feel of a solid, however its simply a dense point cloud allowing you the ability of real time visualization and interpretation.

Contact us at sales@cmmxyz.com for further information.