Jim Anderton: If you need to qualify relatively small parts, assemblies or tooling, there are multiple ways to do that. But what if you make things that are physically very large, such as airplane wings, for example, or large jigs and fixtures. I'm with Chris Scott, he's a sales engineer at Hexagon. Chris, I understand that you have a technology that would let you scan very large objects. Tell me how it works.
Chris Scott: Right, we have here the LAS-XL scanner. It partners with the Leica laser tracker AT960. So, essentially what that allows you to do is use the large-scale capabilities and accuracy and portability of your Leica laser tracker with the LAS-XL scanner. It identifies the scanner in space, as it shoots out a flying dot laser. The scanner fires a 600-millimeter-wide beam at a 1-meter offset that allows you to capture large-scale fixtures for either large part verification, assembly work, or for reverse engineering capabilities.
JA: That's a very wide swath, a 60-centimeter-wide beam. You can stand off as far as a meter away from the thing that you're scanning?
CS: Yes, absolutely. So, what that allows you to do is to scan large parts very comfortably and very fast. For example, buses, airplanes, buildings, large structures like that. Also, you're able to scale the laser down to a smaller laser with, allowing you to gather more accurate features or edges. It's a handheld scanner. The tracker picks up the reflector on it, and then you simply pull the trigger and it works like a laser line scanner
JA: So, to be clear, you don't require any embedded reflectors or anything actually on the part to be scanned?
CS: That's correct, there's no there's no need for any targets, there's no need for a developer on the part, no preparation on the surface of the part and no cleaning afterwards.
JA: What industries do you anticipate would use this technology? We've mentioned aerospace is one, transportation?
CS: Yes, railroad, buses, trucks, anything involving large structures would be beneficial.
JA: Would you use this for part measurement, or could you also use it for qualifying, for example, large jigs or fixtures?
CS: Both. You can qualify parts as well as scanning the jigs and fixtures for them.
JA: So, you generate a point cloud data, now what happens to that?
CS: With our software you're able to compare that back to a CAD file, you’re able to extract features as well, or you can actually bring that over to other software for reverse engineering.
JA: So, Chris, could you demonstrate this with something in this trade show booth to show us how it works?
CS: Yeah, absolutely! I can go ahead and scan you for a second.
JA: Okay, let's give it a try.
JA: Hexagon’s Chris Scott, with a solution for scanning large parts and assemblies.