[Land-speed] new toy- 3D scanner?

[Ed Weldon]

The NextEngine 3d scanner is fascinating. Especially the $5K price. In
another area I won't go into here it looks to have good uses for small
enterprises for which the investment of 30K or more for a larger scanner is
out of the question.
 But I'm having a hard time coming up with useful applications in what we do
to build race cars, even for the guys who are professional chassis or engine
builders.  One possibility is reproducing an unreplaceable rocker arm.  Scan
it and use a 3d printer to give you a wax model for investment casting.
Then cast it in an alloy like 17-4 Ph stainless steel, which is fairly
strong.  We have a foundry here in northern CA that investment casts that
alloy on a regular basis.
Might be some possibilities for the street rod or restorer world to replace
OEM white metal parts.  Say something like a 34 Ford Greyhound.
I can see where the FARO arm wouldn't be of much use for a hood ornament
although for the engine builder who has reached a level of sophistication
whare he has a granite surface plate in his shop big enough to hold an
engine block the FARO arm could be very useful.
Ed Weldon

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Del Solid" <delsolid at gmail.com>
To: <land-speed at autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:38 PM
Subject: Re: [Land-speed] new toy- 3D scanner?


> We actually have that exact machine here at my work (the printer, not
> the scanner). It's very cool but with options and stuff it was closer
> to $27-28K.
> The real benefit is to make prototype tooling before committing to a
> casting. It is very nice but the surface is not very smooth and it is
> subject to some dimensional shift if you model a very tall part. But
> still very much worth the money if you do that sort of thing.
> It is pricy to run as it uses lots of media and it's not cheap. It
> also uses a plastic tray that the model is formed on and they are not
> reusable either.
> Our machine probably runs 75+ hours a week.
> I think the desktop scanner is very cool indeed. We make alot of
> connectors where a sample is available but they are not available to
> purchase in quantity, forcing us to reverse engineer a mating
> connector (think car ECU's). That scanner would be a godsend if it did
> what they say.
> We currently use a 3D FARO arm but it is not well suited for small parts.
> John