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Best hand laser scanner unit

cgrim3

Cast Iron
Joined
Dec 4, 2020
Location
Baltimore
Hi all,

We are making large, heavy assemblies that get custom machine work, welding, and flame spray. It is a combination of fabrication and machine work. Your typical callouts are used such as true position, parallelism, perpendicularity, profile, etc. GD&T stuff. I want a way to inspect these things. A full 5 axis CMM cannot actually get inside the actual assembly. The assembly has a ton of internal welded feature and machined features. We have a faro arm but we need something better. We want to be able to inspect the units on site and in the field.

I was looking at buying a hand-held laser scanner unit, such as the Leica Absolute Tracker from Hexagon. Is this a good unit? Anybody have experience with it? Are there any other brands I should consider or any other metrology solutions I should consider?
 
Have you contacted Hexagon? I spoke to them (I'm a small op) and they were willing to arrange a meeting and demonstration onsite. I didn't pursue a demo because it's really not in my budget, but it was cool they treated me like a big corporation.

I'd guess if you sent them details for what you're trying to do they'd come to your facility and walk you through everything. Probably next week.
 
You REALLY need to get this kind of demo/test of whatever you go with , AND be aware that the scanner hardware is only part of the problem. Will it spit out a point cloud? OK, how do you reduce that to something that can report true position, parallelism, etc? A while ago I was at a demo and one of the software products being demoed was several $10s of K.
 
I am trying to schedule a demo with Zeiss and Hexagon. From my understanding, the laser scanners will create a point cloud. Then you compare the actual point cloud to the CAD model. Bryan, your questions are the same as my questions. What I really want to know is how does the point cloud translate to position, parallelism, etc.
 
So we are currently looking at the Leica Laser tracker with hand scanner and the zeiss t-scan. We demo'd the Leica laser tracker with hand scanner. Does anybody know any differences between the Hexagon and Zeiss unit?

Thanks,

Chris
 
I have nothing to add for your benefit, but I would ask that once you get your unit, that you give us an update after you get accustomed to it.
(for our benefit)


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Think Snow Eh!
Ox
 
You will need software to compare your point cloud to CAD data. You could use your regular CAD and measure deviations or create geometry for comparison but that sounds like a nightmare and prone to errors. Metrology software can generate geometry such as cylinders, cones, points and planes that you can use to assess position of features. Good software will have powerful tools to create multiple relationships and best fit them, even weight them to weight more important features.. I have used Verisurf but prefer Spatial Analyzer, it's been a few years but SA had much better automation capabilities but maybe Verisurf has caught up. $10s of thousands for good software, on top of the $10s or likely $100 for the hardware.
I've used AT901 and 960s with the t-probes, t-macs and handy scans, very nice machines to work with...if you can afford them.
 
You will need software to compare your point cloud to CAD data. You could use your regular CAD and measure deviations or create geometry for comparison but that sounds like a nightmare and prone to errors. Metrology software can generate geometry such as cylinders, cones, points and planes that you can use to assess position of features. Good software will have powerful tools to create multiple relationships and best fit them, even weight them to weight more important features.. I have used Verisurf but prefer Spatial Analyzer, it's been a few years but SA had much better automation capabilities but maybe Verisurf has caught up. $10s of thousands for good software, on top of the $10s or likely $100 for the hardware.
I've used AT901 and 960s with the t-probes, t-macs and handy scans, very nice machines to work with...if you can afford them.

Yeah I think right now we are very impressed with the Leica AT960 with t-probe, hand scanner, and laser tracker. The unit would come with Inspire, Hexagon's software for this unit. You would download the native CAD model into Inspire, upload all the critical GD&T into Inspire, scan the part, and use Inspire to compare our CAD model to the point cloud.

We also may try to demo Zeiss t-scan or some others but we will see. Right now, we are very impressed with the Hexagon Leica
 








 
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