Automotive

The automotive industry is one of the largest industries in the world and has been around since the 1860s. It mainly deals with the design, manufacturing and selling of automobiles. As time has passed, automobile shapes have become leaner by utilizing freeform shapes for better aerodynamics. At the same time, maintaining old and vintage cars has become more difficult due to lack of support from OEMs. 3D scanning and advanced CAD software has allowed engineers create better automobiles and optimize them for efficiency, while reverse engineering has helped old and vintage cars stay on the road.

Scan-to-CAD for Car Body Design And Repair

Scan-to-CAD for car body design in the automotive industry is mainly used to extract a 3D model of the car body from old vintage cars, handmade (sculpted) car models, and discontinued models. Extracting an accurate 3D model can be very difficult and time consuming when using traditional measuring equipment due to the freeform nature of car bodies. High-precision handheld 3D scanners, however, can accurately capture freeform shapes and convert them to detailed mesh models. In addition, these portable scanners can be used at a customer’s site, a production floor, or even a small car body shop. Our Scan-to-CAD solution employs precise 3D scanners to accurately capture, extract and digitize any car body while saving a considerable amount of time compared to using traditional methods.

Solution

Scan-to-CAD for Aftermarket, Legacy and OEM Parts

Finding a quality replacement part can be very challenging and costly, especially if the part is for a rare or discontinued vehicle. At times, good engineering drawings are also not available for manufacturing these parts, which leads to only one option; reverse engineering. However, reverse engineering automotive parts using traditional measurement methods can be very difficult due to incorrect capture of complex shapes and geometries. Our solution is based on the Scan-to-CAD approach which uses precise 3D scanners and CAD software to scan, reverse engineer and create manufacturing drawings for these parts. Our workflow allows us to drastically reduce time and cost as it typically takes just a few days compared to months to reverse engineer a part. In addition, we can also use the captured data to check for alignment and fit-up issues.

Solution

Case Study

First Article Inspection (FAI)

With ever increasing industry regulations, manufacturers and suppliers are required to perform and generate documentation for quality purposes. Combining our 3d scanners and inspection software, we can scan parts in high-resolution and provide a 3D graphical color map report comparing the manufactured part to the actual CAD model. This workflow process has been used to evaluate supplier quality, investigate quality issues, and pin point problems in a design for modifications.

Solution

Case Study