AD&P; > October 2013 > ACCELERATE
ACCELERATE
ACCELERATE
p The NVision scans a
complex casting for an
LED street lamp.
Turning the Lights On—Faster
Many municipalities have turned LED lights to illuminate
their streets, in greener fashion. Despite the energy
efciency, the entry costs are high—in large part due to
the complexity of the systems, not just the still-pricey
light emitting diodes.
For Lighting Science (lsgc.com), which makes the
RoadMaster street light, inspecting parts from suppliers
to ft specifcations has been an arduous process. The
Roadmaster fxtures are built around aluminum die
castings that are 2-ft long by 1-ft wide. The complex
geometry of the parts would take up to a week to inspect
with a coordinate measuring machine (CMM)—or about
four hours to inspect each part because of the large
number of points that need to be touched one at a time to
validate the 3D geometry, the company notes.
Lighting Science began using NVision's (nvision3d.com)
HandHeld laser scanner to ensure their supplier parts
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actually match the original designs, in much swifter
fashion than conventional methods.
"With the NVision HandHeld laser scanner we can, in
about two hours, obtain the complete 3D geometry of a
casting and compare it to the design intent to determine
not only if the part meets the design intent but also
whether it is trending in the correct direction," said
Richard Williams, manager of product quality assurance
for Lighting Science.
The scanner is attached to a mechanical arm that moves
around the object. The software allows full model editing,
polygon reduction, and data output to all standard 3D
packages. It takes an operator about an hour to scan the
casting and generate a point cloud, with another hour to
convert it to a surface model for comparison with a CAD
model. Using NVision software, the scanned part can be
compared with said design.