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Today scanning is established in industrial production. Mainly in automotive,
design, prototyping, first article inspection and quality control, the
ATOS scanner system is very successfully used.
Customers with high scanning volume are now looking for automated scanning
solutions.
GOM can offer automated and semi-automated scanner systems and already
has automated systems in operation. Before the customer decides for an
automated scanning system, he is good advised to look at the advantages
as well as the limitations of the automation. Then an optimised system
for the customers needs can be offered.
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In order to watch a short video (Qicktime movie, 2.6MB) please
click on the picture below.
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Fig. 1: Automated scanning system (Robot
and ATOS II) digitizing a sheet metal |
A robot is often a very valid selection if repetitive digitizing with
the need for multiple axis movement is needed. The ATOS scanner is usually
mounted on the robot, if big parts have to be digitized. For small parts,
a fixed ATOS scanner setup can be recommended. Then the robot handles
the parts and can be used to work from a pallet, including load and unload
of the parts.
For scanning in design we recommend to use the ATOS scanner manually,
or go for a semi-automated setup. This setup should be able to do an
automated scan and be flexible to add some manually controlled shots,
if needed.
Following a list of advantages for both the automated and the manual
solution.
Advantages of the automated scanning solution
- Time saving for repetitive scanning jobs:
After the "teach in" of the measuring positions, automated
measuring is faster compared with manual measuring.
- Lower operating cost:
During the automated measuring no operator is needed.
- Repeatability:
Automated digitizing produce repeatable data quality, if the digitizing
conditions are stable.
Advantages of a manual scanning solution
- Time and cost saving for individual measurements:
For individual parts and for small series (up to typically 5 parts),
the manual measurement usually is faster than the automated measurement
since no special setup and "teach in" time is needed.
- Flexibility:
The measuring is made based on the need and the ambient conditions,
giving a decent result even at difficult scanning conditions.
- Mobility:
The ATOS scanner travels to the part to be scanned. The automated scanner
system is usually installed in a separated digitizing area and therefore
ask for the parts to travel to the automated scanner system. If the
ATOS scanner can easily be separated from the automated system, the
customer has the option to use the scanner system with manual control.
- Security:
An automated system usually needs a person free working space and security
relevant investments.
In this article, Brian Bowman, team leader for "Design Milling and
Measurement" describes the work flow in his team.
His team is scanning an average of 120 parts, including 26 full size
cars per month in manual control, using their 3 ATOS II XL systems. Manually,
the Ford team digitize the individual parts, generating the needed data
quality and coverage. Then the post treatment of the scanned data (typically
to stl data) is made in an automated way in additional ATOS evaluation
PCs, connected to the scanner systems. Therefore the scanning systems
can be used for manual digitizing around the clock.
An automated scanning solution was built for the tooling department
at Ford. This system is based on a big robot with an ATOS scanner and
a TRITOP photogrammetry camera mounted on the tip of the robot to allow
the automated use of the ATOS XL technology. This system was not flexible
and efficient enough for Brian's team and therefore he decided to use
manual scanning and automate the data processing.
To help the design team to spend their time on their core job, we can
offer a semi-automated solution for parts with typically 1 meter diameter
at reasonable costs and no limitations on the flexibility of the ATOS
scanner. For this system, a rotation table with a circular platform is
fixed to the floor and directly controlled by the ATOS Scanner. Some reference
markers are attached to the platform and defined using the TRITOP photogrammetry
system.
Then parts can be mounted on the platform, and if needed additional reference
markers can be attached on the part. The ATOS scanner is then manually
positioned to digitize the part with typically 45 degree angle to the
rotation axis and the automated digitizing process is started taking 8
or 12 views with a rotation of the part of 45 or 30 degree after each
measurement. At the end of the automated digitizing, the user inspects
the digitized result and adds additional shots manually, if needed. Then
the automated data processing is started to calculate an optimized data
set (stl data) of this part.
Typical parts which ask for automated digitizing in big quantities are
turbine blades and castings from humans, e.g. for dental work and for
hearing aids etc.
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Fig. 2: ATOS II SO with small rotation table
Animation |
Fig. 3: Digitized data for dental work. Castings
are often used in medical applications to produce matching parts with
optimized fit. |
For customers asking for a fully automated system, a robot can be a
flexible solution. Small parts can be automatically picked, positioned
in the measuring area of the fixed ATOS system and released. Medium size
parts, such as sheet metal parts, medium size blades and bigger plastic
molded parts are usually placed on a holding device and the robot is scanning
the part with the ATOS scanner mounted on the robot.
Big objects can be placed on a rotary table to allow access to the backside
of the object by a medium size robot.
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| Fig. 4: Blades are often scanned before and after
rework, to make sure the actual blade can be reworked and the finished
blade is according to specs. |
Fig. 5: The deviation of two new blades (typically
250 mm height) shows low deviations. After rework, the form and the
thickness of the coating (if available) can be measured and displayed
using the ATOS scanner. |
If an automated data analysis and reporting are needed, the scanning
system can transfer the scanned data to an additional PC, with installed
inspection software which allows automated data evaluation and reporting
(e.g. Inspector from).
We like to build automated scanning systems which allow the customer
to easily separate the scanner from the automated system. Then, if scanning
work has to be done which is not suitable for automated scanning, the
operator can use the GOM scanner in the standard manual mode.
Often a team work of the user and the semi-automated scanning system
is a fast and cost efficient solution. Then the human operator guarantees
the flexible use of the scanning system and the semi-automated scanner
is doing the repetitive work.
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