Portable white light 3D inspection and reverse engineering systems.

Most manufacturers are familiar with contact CMMs, and their lack of speed and the time and skill it takes to programme the machines. However, they are only now becoming familiar with the limitations of other noncontact 3D scanning systems such as laser scanners or white light measuring scanners.

All currently available 3D optical scanner systems are very good at measuring surfaces, but terrible at measuring edges, and for sheet metal parts it’s the 3D measurement of the edges that are important, claims InspecVision. Indeed, in other surface scanners edge positions are usually estimated by the absence of measurements rather than any accurate measurements. For example, if a hole diameter is required existing 3D optical scanners cannot get good readings of the edge of the hole, so the system must estimate the size of the hole based on where the measurements stop, rather than the any actual measurements of the edge of the hole. As a result the accuracy suffers terribly.

The InspecVision Opti-Scan system is different. It combines the surface measurements from its fringe interferometry with the edge measurements from its existing patented silhouette measurement system, to produce the worlds first hybrid surface and edge measurement system. The system works in two ways: An image of the silhouette of the part is used to define its edges, then bands of light and a phase shift technology is used to determine the height of each pixel in the image. This provides the added bonus of a perfectly ordered point cloud, which greatly assists reverse engineering and inspection of the measurements.

The Opti-Scan is a non-contact white light scanning system consisting of a projector and a high resolution camera mounted side by side. Scans are achieved by projecting a series of stripes onto the part. These stripes are then captured with the camera and the images analysed to produce a 3D point cloud of the scanned surface.

Each point cloud is made up of millions of individual measurement points or (X,Y,Z) coordinates and directional or normal data (I,J,K). The Opti-Scan outputs the ultra-high resolution point clouds into a number of different file types that can be used in virtually any 3D inspection or reverse engineering software package.

The InspecVision OptiScan systems use patented technology to create both surface and edge measurements achieving unprecedented levels of accuracy.

Perfect for measuring stamped or pressed parts and sheet metal that is not completely flat
The Opti-Scan3D can measure up to 250 000 individual surface measurement points per second. This data can then be combined with the Planar’s 40,000,000 measurement points in 0.1 seconds! There is no other available system in the world that can offer these hybrid measurements.

The Opti-Scan is both flexible and modular. Consequently it can be used in a wide variety of industries including aerospace, automotive/transport, plastic parts, sheet-metal parts, machined parts, energy and power, metal castings and research and development.

Typical applications
• Scan parts and compare directly to CAD
• Measurement without CAD
• First article inspection
• Verification of test parts against master components
• Tool certification
• Complete reverse engineering of virtually any part back to native CAD formats

For further details contact B&R Metrology Solutions on TEL: 082 852 6371 or 072 392 4934 or visit www.brmetrology.co.za