Article by: Jim Cassady, Integrated Marketing Director – 3D Metrology, FARO Technologies, Inc. & MEGA Tech Magazine
From a product perspective, contemporary measuring arms (constructed from composite materials) are a fraction of the weight of their predecessors. Depending on their length, often ranging from 1.5 to 4 meters, they can be as light as 18lbs or as “bulky” as 20+lbs. They are also more maneuverable than ever with 7 and now 8-axis rotary scanning – an advance that can decrease scan times up to 40 percent, while maintaining accuracy.
“Swinging” in to Action
Scanning speeds have also accelerated thanks in large part to increases in laser beam scanning width, often referred to as scan stripe, which can capture a larger area in less time, without losing resolution. Even the type of laser used has advanced over the decades, and now features red, green, and blue laser options.
Of the three colors, blue lasers have the shortest wavelength. As a result smaller details are captured, along with a vast improvement in the ability to scan dark and/or shiny surfaces with a point acquisition rate of over one million points per second. Prior to this development machinists and metalworkers would be forced to paint said parts in order to scan – or, alternatively, resort to traditional hand tools like calipers and micrometers for their measurement needs.
Green lasers are also superior to red lasers and generate less speckle, resulting in greater detail. They are ideal for visual color definition, delivering full-spectrum color scanning capabilities for high-resolution color point cloud data capture and analysis.
From a software perspective, it’s hard to overstate how much has changed since Homer Eaton, considered the father of modern articulated measuring arms, filed his patent for the Vector 1. Gone are the behemoth computers and teletype-like machines. Today’s software is designed for standard desktop and laptop computers and is available as an on-premises product or a cloud-based solution. With their graphical user interfaces and intuitive commands, nearly any operator – independent from experience and technical know-how – can master these programs. Once the data is imported into the software a metrology-grade 3D scanned image is generated and information related to it can be shared across an organization in real time in the form of raw data, graphs, and visual reports.
The benefits of such software are clear: unparalleled insight into process variation, alerts which help avoid time-consuming “reworks” and costly scraps, and an opportunity for companies to improve their manufacturing efficiencies.
The “Reach to Succeed”
Just as we’ve come a far piece from the articulated measuring arms of the mid 1970s, so too, will the technology continue to advance, along with their corresponding products. Lighter weight arms will be developed. Scan times will continue to decrease. And software developers will continue to press forward the frontier of augmented reality and artificially intelligent machines.
In his 1962 book, “Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible,” renowned science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke penned his now-famous observation: “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” For articulated measuring arms, it’ll be fascinating to see when that “magic moment” arrives.