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CASTING
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Portable 3-D Scanner Leads to Enhanced Quality Assurance
ast year, Willman Industries Inc., Cedar Grove, Wis., a full-service jobbing metalcast- ing facility that specializes in nobake and green sand molding to produce gray and duc- tile iron castings, began exploring possible
improvements to its quality assurance procedures. Randy Parker, quality manager, Willman Industries, wanted to simultaneously improve throughput and performance. Familiar with the benefits of 3-D scanners, Parker
was looking to upgrade Willman’s capabilities from an older laser scanner and portable coordinate measuring machine. He contacted Exact Metrology to investi- gate what possible solutions could be found. Willman eventually settled on the Artec Eva 3-D scanner from Exact Metrology, Cincinnati, in July 2014. The targetless scanner weighs less than 2 lbs., doesn’t require reference markers or calibration, and has improved portability compared to Willman’s previous device. In terms of per- formance and quality, the Eva compares to a 3-D video camera. At a rate of 16 frames per second, the scanner
captures up to 288,000 points per second, which are aligned automatically in real-time, making 3-D scanning easy and fast. Additionally, the Eva was capable of working with
large castings up to 30,000 lbs., a major benefit for a job shop that creates metal castings of various shapes and sizes. Parker said the Eva has been in use practically every day in some capacity or another since purchasing it and estimated it has been instrumental in quality assurance for approximately 50 jobs. “We’ve made numerous improvements to our pro- cess with it,” Parker said. “Our dimensional control has improved not just from measuring the castings but from checking multiple process inputs with the Eva. We’ve greatly expanded the primary use we bought it for as well, to include problem solving, tooling analysis, pattern and mold scanning, and reverse engineering.” Parker knew the Eva would help layout castings more
rapidly, but the actual pace has been especially surpris- ing. Some tasks are accomplished in 75% less time. Parker noted some castings that historically would have stretched over a period of seven to 10 days are now being done in six to 10 hours. “The rate at which you can capture data is fantastic,”
Parker said. “Without a doubt the Eva has saved our company money. We definitely promote it to customers as a valuable tool that will enable us to meet their castings’ requirements. ■
At a rate of 16 frames per second, the handheld scanner captures up to 280,000 points a second to build a 3-D model of the object.
46 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | Jul/Aug 2015
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