4 Amazing Benefits of Automated 3D Scanning

Automated 3D scanning has been a game-changer for enhancing operations and making companies more capable of maintaining control as their businesses scale. Let’s take a closer look at the fascinating possibilities.

1. Excellent Portability

Not all 3D scanners with automation capabilities are highly portable. But, as more people who provide such equipment realized many of their customers want to take the products whenever they go, that’s started to change.

One company’s palm-sized scanner offers an accuracy of up to 0.020 millimetres. It’s also more accurate and energy-efficient than a previous version. The scanner is specifically designed to help people scan narrow spaces and deep grooves, from which it’d otherwise be difficult to capture detailed information. Automation comes into the picture via a batch-scanning feature that helps people get specific dimensional details at all manufacturing stages.

Another example comes from a 3D scanner used in medicine for breast exams. The portable machine only takes two minutes to do a complete and automated scan. It also gets reliable results regardless of an operator’s expertise.

The team behind this device believes it could forever change women’s health through better accessibility. For example, device users can transfer the 3D data from the scanner to a laptop or tablet. The information also goes to the cloud for later retrieval.

2. Improved Accuracy

People often use automated 3D scanning to ensure nothing falls through the cracks regarding quality control. Many devices are so advanced that they can do the job much faster than humans and with fewer errors. Plus, some products automatically determine whether a part meets quality control standards. Human judgment is subjective, but when machines do the job, sorting parts according to whether they pass or fail becomes much more manageable.

Deploying automated scanning for quality control also becomes an ideal option for companies facing the challenges of checking large product volumes before shipping. Consider the example of a company that uses a 3D scanning tool to automate checks for dimensional and aesthetic defects on Volkswagen filter plate seals. The business makes 5 million products annually in Mexico before sending them to customers in China and Germany.

The company’s system combines 3D laser scanners, high-speed cameras and software that compares a physical part with images of known flaws. The technology delivers results of zero defective parts per million and can check up to six seals per second.

Representatives indicated this tech investment ensures quality and safety while helping the company deliver more parts on time. The company also uses its inspection machines in a continuous improvement strategy that enhances marketplace resilience.

Automation is only sometimes the best solution for enhanced accuracy. However, examples like these show why it often makes sense.

3. Better Visibility

It’s becoming more common for industrial leaders to use digital twins to improve decision-making, make predictions and more. These highly realistic digitized models help people become better prepared for challenging scenarios or understand how certain circumstances could evolve.

Automated 3D scanning may soon become vital for digital twin creation. That’s the hope of representatives from a robotics and data intelligence company based in London. It automates data collection to build real-time digital twins. A robot and 3D scanners comprise part of the solution allowing that outcome.

The company’s high-definition scanners collect data about warehouses of all sizes and shapes. That information then goes into a digital twin creation platform. Users can even get specifics down to the barcodes on certain boxes or pallets.

This option is also ideal for people curious about digital twins who don’t want to make infrastructure changes. It doesn’t require any, and company representatives say many clients get their first digital twins running in about a week.

This kind of visibility is critical in a business landscape that often includes supply chain strain, worker shortages and other challenges. Automated 3D scanning can give people highly detailed insights that remove or reduce the guesswork that often comes with their challenging roles.

BMW Increases Oversight of Global Factories

Being able to use a digital twin or similar technology is especially valuable when a brand has worldwide factories. BMW was an early adopter of automated 3D scanning when it began using the technology in 2015. The technology enabled a 50% reduction in the time required to generate a full car model.

However, the company has recently expanded how it uses 3D scanners. It’s using 3D scanners to make digital twins for each factory. The company did not specify whether the approach features automation. However, it will allow planners or inspectors to walk through digital versions of factories or employees to cut out small sections of factories to show suppliers or other stakeholders.

4. Enhanced Safety

Company leaders are always eager to make work safer for everyone involved. Making such progress reduces accident numbers and supports an organization’s reputation. Automated 3D scanning is a viable option for improving worker well-being by targeting safety.

Consider an option used by the Australian mining industry that uses 3D scanners to show professionals underground views while they sit hundreds of meters away from the site. The technology allows them to see where to dig, then remotely operate heavy machinery to do the job.

This approach puts more miners further away from the mining activities and equipment that exposes them to now-preventable risks. Although some miners at sites using this scanning technology are still underground, they’re away from the machinery that could injure them. People familiar with this technology also believe it has broader applications, such as for tunneling work in civil engineering or agriculture tasks associated with explosion risks.

Another Australian advancement concerns using 3D laser scanners within fully automated shiploaders. The eight shiploaders in question collectively assisted with the export of 280 million tonnes of iron ore worldwide in 2021.

People involved with the project anticipate it will significantly improve worker safety while making ship-loading tasks more precise and efficient. The automation component can also adjust for factors such as weather, hazards and port-related variables.

Another way automated 3D scanning supports safety is by giving obstacle detection and collision-avoidance features to automated mobile robots. In such cases, onboard scanners automatically scan a robot’s surroundings and store the information in memory. Those features help company leaders start using mobile robots safely and effectively.

Will You Try Automated 3D Scanning?

There’s no single best way to use an automated 3D scanner. However, the options discussed here show you some of what’s possible and could spark your inspiration, making you more open to and excited about how you might deploy automated 3D scanning technology in your facility.