3D Scanning

Evaluating 3d scanners for part replication / reverse engineering components.

3D Scanners are a great tool as it speeds up the process saving time, money and biggest part is accuracy, but there are 2 sides to every coin, the cost v accuracy v DPI

Balancing the features of a scanner to your need!

How big or small is the scanning work you do? Do you need fine detail DPI or do you need a high level of Accuracy do you need colour!

Is it worth spending $$$$$ to get 0.013mm or 0.01mm will this make a difference to the end product if your 3d printer is printing at 0.05mm or if its a model with no interaction with other parts.

In our case size will be guided by our 3d printer sizes Mostly, but some units do have more flexibility.

CAC.Works carryout a lot of reverse engineering so that means we need high accuracy and mid to high DPI as this combination will result in better overall scan quality and less post scan work patching.

Offer areas to think about is the software, In some cases it can cost as much or more than the scanner ! this depends on the intended use of completed scans and the required file output.

in our case we require CAD files as we need to be able to tweak designs of components, We had $7000 in additional software in one example we looked at.

There is no one size fits all you really have to look at what you want to do and how often you will use the scanner as it can be a significant investment.