How 3D scanning is reshaping the manufacturing industry now and into the future
In the deep ancient past, sometime around 2.6 million years ago, early humans began manufacturing things using stone tools. At first, primitive homo sapiens manufactured weapons instrumental for their survival. Weapons that would allow them to hunt prey more easily as well as fend off or attack rival groups. Fast forward a couple of million years and we arrive in the ancient world. Ancient Egypt, to be exact. It was in this place that some of the very earliest machines, like the lathe, were manufactured. Jumping ahead to the Middle Ages, long before the age of digitization and software, all tool and machine manufacturing was done by hand. There were no computers handling every stage of the manufacturing process. The design, production, and Quality Assurance processes involved in manufacturing were the sole domain of highly skilled tradespeople. Today, manufacturing continues to be the cornerstone of many modern economies across the globe. And yet it is changing. Thanks to the likes of 3D scanning, manufacturing is undergoing a rapid and extraordinary evolution.
How 3D scanning impacts manufacturing today
3D scanning stands as one of the most significant technological breakthroughs in the history of manufacturing. Importantly, 3D scanning empowers manufacturers to reproduce digitally an existing product in mere moments. Once the manufactured item has been 3D-scanned, the options of what you can do next are limitless. Enhance its design, manufacture it using different materials, test its performance by running simulations, and the list goes on.
How 3D scanning is transforming the world of manufacturing
Concept design
The old-fashioned way of working up a new design is to model the object using lead, clay, or foam. This model is then able to be digitized using the painstaking and time-consuming CAD approach. What 3D scanning does is render this level of double-handling and tediousness obsolete. With the use of powerful scanners, you can digitally reproduce a manufactured object with extreme accuracy in only a few minutes.
Industrial design (ID)
ID is a highly complex, multi-faceted process that sees a range of designers and engineers working to resolve a product’s ultimate form and features. Certainly, 3d scanning helps streamline and integrate the many different phases of ID. By instantly digitizing product design, it allows teams of designers and engineers to get to work straight away on enhancing the functionality of the product. From initial design all the way to product testing, 3D scanning has become a mainstay in the industrial design sector due to the benefits it bestows, namely high precision, speed, and unprecedented levels of detail. Not only does 3D scanning help ensure quality control, but it is also instrumental in two other important ID approaches, namely rapid prototyping, and reverse engineering. In the world of manufacturing, these two approaches help achieve the greatest quality products in the shortest timeframe.
Rapid prototyping
3D scanning accelerates the rapid prototyping process. 3D scanners can instantly acquire the exact dimensions of a model, doing away with the need for specialists slaving away for an inordinate amount of time using specific tools to create a prototype. When your business is made or broken by getting a manufactured product to market fast, rapid prototyping can help. And 3D scanning helps to make this process even faster again. When you utilize 3D scanning, you unlock the ability to test the functionality, features, and assembly of a design without having to follow the usual lengthy prototyping process.
Reverse engineering
Classically, reverse engineering works by taking an object apart piece by piece to deduce how it was manufactured. The beauty of 3D scanning is that it digitally renders, in very high detail, any component or product you need to manufacture, without the need to dismantle it. This saves both time and labor costs. 3D scanning has revolutionized the process of reverse engineering by allowing designers and engineers to utilize existing prototypes as the digital model to base their future designs on. 3D scanning makes it easy for manufacturers to reproduce very complex designs and manufacturing processes quickly and easily.
Custom part fabrication
Especially in the automotive industry, manufacturers need to quickly produce custom-made parts that conform exactly to clients’ specifications. 3D scanning expedites what was once a complicated process by instantly capturing a digital model of the existing assembly. Now, the design team is propelled into work much faster coming up with a custom-made component that is guaranteed to be an exact fit for the application at hand.
Metrology and QA
The application of 3D scanning in manufacturing is making it very easy to maintain excellent quality control standards. QA managers can now check each batch before it leaves, by 3D scanning a model to ensure its dimensions are in conformity with the design. 3D scanning in this instance is allowing manufacturers to consistently get products with extreme levels of quality to market. 3D scanning for metrology makes the client happy, ensures the manufacturer retains their credibility in the industry and produces a thing of unrivalled quality and precision for the end-user.
3D scanning is the future of manufacturing
In the future, 3D scanning will become, like most things, largely automated. Imagine assembly lines replete with 3D scanners that automatically check each product at each stage of the manufacturing process to ensure conformity with the original design. The system automatically flags when an object is outside the bounds of acceptable tolerances. Or imagine the end of assembly line manufacturing altogether. The University of Würzburg in Germany recently invented a method of digitally simulating manufacturing production lines using 3D scanning. This method not only allows the mock-up of different combinations of machinery, but it also enables manufacturers to test the efficiency of their assembly lines before investing a dime in building or changing them. Such a system allows users to run detailed simulations to test the different effects of changes made in real-time.
Yet there is another imaginable future also. 3D scanning combined with 3D printing will make it possible to manufacture anything designers and engineers can dream of. It will make the stuff of science fiction, a reality. Whilst this day is coming, what we have right here and now are the keys to unlocking that future. Let 3D scanning unlock the future of your manufacturing business and save you time, effort, and cost. Not only will it allow you to achieve unprecedented levels of accuracy and precision, but it will also ensure your company’s brand as a trusted producer of very high quality manufactured goods. The team at 4D tooling is made up of precision metrology specialists, toolmakers, die makers, and fully-trained technicians who offer 3D scanning services in Michigan. As a dedicated 3D scanning, reverse engineering, and metrology partner, they offer your manufacturing business the keys to unlocking the power of this advanced technology. So, why not reach out to see how they can help your business revolutionize its future, today?