Breaking Down 3d Scanners: What They Do, And How

By Author: supriyo banerjee
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Digital technology has shown remarkable advancement in the past fifteen years or so, and a few top notch manufacturers have simply done a superb job of keeping up with the growing needs of their customers that seems to come with these advances. State of the art devices such as the RANGE 7, or VIVID 9i 3D scanners have been meticulously developed and manufactured with the strictest of protocols to enable nearly every industry to accomplish in mere hours (and sometimes, even minutes!), what just a decade and a half ago might have taken several laborious days, weeks, or even months to come to fruition. 3D scanners, and 3D scanning services, have made definitive imprints on a huge variety of industries that are looking for an edge over their competition in this burgeoning digital age.

Defining what precisely a 3D scanner is, and who can benefit from its use.

3D scanners are highly technical devices for the scanning and creation of a fully 3 Dimensional digital representation of a target object or series of objects. A 3D scanner such as the RANGE 7, or VIVID 9i can do this by way ...
... of a laser light beam or grid that captures information about the shape of the structure relative to its place in space, and digitizing that information. 3D scanning services are so adaptable and so prevailing that they are able to procure data from a very small object such as a pen or paper clip, or even a structure as tremendous as a Boeing 747 or a battleship.

A great variety of industries are currently benefitting from their use. Some such industries are the manufacturing industry, where 3D scanners are used for the scanning of tools and dyes, reverse engineering, rapid prototyping, and computer aided inspections of manufactured parts, the healthcare industry, where 3D scanners are employed for medical imaging (3D images can be taken of prosthetics, cancerous tumors, and brain and organ imagery during surgery), and Orthodontics, where 3D scanners are in use for the scanning of denture and mouth guard design as well as the scanning of cast records. The Entertainment industry also utilizes 3D scanners for the creation of 3 Dimensional movie production and video gaming, as well as a variety of art industries that use these handy devices for museum archiving and sculpture reproduction.

There is an amazing array of 3D scanners available on the market from the RANGE 7 to the VIVID 9i. The capabilities and applications of any 3D scanner are incredible. However, it is paramount to examine a few of your specific needs to choose an appropriate 3D scanner suited for the application for which you intend to employ it. You’ll want to consider field of view and depth of field, to determine accurate size and range of width of object scanned, resolution and accuracy, to capture essence of items scanned, and overall scanner performance, to meet proper application and requirements of industry.

Kris Leeds is a freelance writer for Konica-Minolta, a forerunner of 3D laser scanning services, and leading provider of 3D scanners and imaging equipment. For more information about display measurement and other services, please visit Sensing Konica Minolta online.