What Is Metrology and Why Is It Needed?

What is Metrology and Why is it Needed?

Metrology is the scientific study of measurement. This field of study defines measurements under a common understanding, applies these measurements in practice, and uses them in analysis across industries. Because of its broad applicability, metrology is used worldwide to establish accuracy and precision in many critical fields.

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What Is the Reverse Engineering Process and How Does It Work?

How Does Reverse Engineering Work?

Reverse engineering is the process of analyzing and deconstructing something to see how it works. An example would be taking apart an alarm clock to understand what each piece does – and how the pieces work together.

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Using Transformation Matrices with Point Clouds

When working with large point clouds, particularly those from our FARO Focus S 350 long range scanner, it is often necessary to modify the existing point cloud to align or organize the data. For example, scans from the long range scanner are translated and rotated in all six degrees of freedom to align to one another and create a contiguous point cloud. To do this, a transformation matrix is applied to the data.

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What are my Part Digitizing Options? Buy a Scanner or Use a Service

Most companies that have a need to digitize parts ask the “Make/Buy” question.  Do I purchase part scanning equipment and train staff (Make) or do I find a good service provider (Buy)?  Or are there levels in between this?

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What are Casting datums?

We have all seen prints with many datum reference frames on them. The fact that there are multiple sets of datum’s is not an issue and is put in place for functional design reasons. There can be so many that they look like an alphabet soup. But what about raw castings? Generally the functional part datum reference frame(s) have not yet been cut into the parts yet.  This where casting datums come into play.  They are typically designated as X-Y-Z or Z-Y-X.

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Using Laser or Structured Light Scanning to Preserve Your Tuned Molds and Dies – Just Like Notre Dame

Your Molds and Dies are critical to your business.  They were meticulously created and iteratively tuned until the parts they produce are within specification.  At that point, they were put into production and no documentation of the final tuned geometry was captured.  This is actually the standard operating procedure for most of the world.  The problem occurs when a part gets stuck and the equipment is cycled again and the tool cracks!  Now you are stuck with having to go through the entire tuning process again.  Or are you? With laser scanning and structured light scanning you may be in luck.

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What Data Collection or Scanning Equipment and Technology is Needed for My Project?

Augmenting Structured Light

Many measurement and reverse engineering requirements require more than simple caliper or micrometer measurements.  Whether you are conducting a First Article Inspection (FAI), troubleshooting a manufacturing issue or reverse engineering a legacy part for improvements, one or multiple of the modern data collection methods may work – but what is best and what are you compromising on by using any particular method?  Do you do this work yourself or hire out an experienced service provider?

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Common Non-Contact Measurement Devices and Methods

Non-contact or touchless dimensional measurement devices are the modern new comer to an array of contact devices that have been traditionally used.  Contact devices are discussed in this link on Common Contact Measurement Devices.  All of the non-contact devices generate a point cloud or voxel data set as their most raw form of data.  The exception is the optical comparator which has been around since the late 1920s.  It does not expressly produce digital data, but some of the variant equipment that evolved from this equipment does.

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Reduce FAI/PPAP time & cost by 80%: The New Inspection Paradigm

Traditional FAI & PPAP

Traditionally FAI (First Article Inspection) and PPAP (Production Part Approval Process) inspections include a complete look at all the print dimensions.  A typical dimension may take 10-minutes to fully program, collect the data and report using traditional methods.  Because prints can easily have between 150 to 1,000 dimensions, this becomes a significant time and resource constraint for many projects.

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Why Choose 3D Engineering Solutions for your Industrial CT Scanning Needs?

When it comes to engineering services, we know there are many options to consider. To better explain how our services compare to the competition, we created a video that answers the question:

What differentiates 3D Engineering Solutions from scanning bureaus?

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