Product category:
Rapid Prototyping
News Release from: 3D Scanners | Subject: Johnson Controls
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 17 May 2002
Automotive supplier takes control of
prototyping
Investment in state-of-the-art laser scanning technology is bringing major time savings and quality enhancements to one of the world's best known names in car seat manufacturing.
Investment in state-of-the-art laser scanning technology supplied by Coventry-based 3D Scanners UK is bringing major time savings and quality enhancements to one of the world's best known names in car seat manufacturing Johnson Controls' UK facility at Chelmsford in Essex undertook a major review of its use of engineering technologies in late 2000 and was seeking a system suitable for the digitisation of seating and interior components
The new system was to be used in prototype seat development, to measure existing seats on which to base the prototype, which could then be styled or modified in different ways to provide a range of options for customers.
The specification for the new system was stringent to say the least.
Firstly it needed to be robust, portable and able to operate in normal lighting conditions.
It also had to be capable of scanning a wide range of materials such as clay, foam, plastic and trimmed seats in different colours.
This effectively entailed the specification of a non-contact system, as a touch probe would mark a clay model, whilst contact with soft materials would have some effect on their shape and the operator would not be able to guarantee the same degree of pressure at all stages during the process.
Finally, the new system needed to be able to be integrated with some form of portable CMM and to work within a car interior.
3D Scanners ModelMaker, in conjunction with the FaroArm, a portable CMM offering almost unlimited three-dimensional movement, was specified based not only on its ability to meet the criteria set out by Johnson Controls, but also for its speed, accuracy it can scan millions of points as little as 0.1mm apart and ease of use which requires minimal operator training.
The noncontact scanning head is accompanied by an integral touch probe, meaning that optical non-contact measurements can be combined with those from the touch probe to give great flexibility in relation to moving the scanned data in and out of co-ordinate systems.
Now, a seat can be scanned in as little as two and a half hours, producing a very dense, accurate point cloud, comprising some four million points, which is compatible with most major CAD packages and therefore ideal for 'virtual' manipulation.
The ModelMaker system has also found other roles within the manufacturing process at Johnson Controls.
Its flexibility allows it to scan first off manufactured seats, where variations from CAD specification can be quickly identified and rectification processes put in place, with minimum materials wastage.
Additionally, seats can be scanned before supply to the customer to prove that they are within the agreed tolerances a crucial competitive advantage for the company in times of ever increasing demands on product quality and consistency.
Pete Thurgood, Engineering Manager within the Advanced Engineering department at Johnson Controls, commented, "The ModelMaker system will be a real advantage to our operations as we can quickly and easily gain a very accurate digital representation of seating and the interior environment containing the most complex geometries".
"Traditional CMMs would not provide this level of precision and, due to their need for considerable operator skill and involvement and their inability to measure large numbers of points, would be too time consuming to be cost-effective, particularly when we are seeking to get products to market quickly".
"The use of ModelMaker within other stages of our manufacturing process means that we are able to realise potential design difficulties much earlier, and take the appropriate remedial action.
It will also be far easier to ensure that seats leaving our facility have been manufactured to the exact specification and size demanded by our customers".
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