(Laser Design Inc.: Minneapolis) -- Laser Design Inc. announces that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has installed a Laser Design SURVEYOR WS Series 3-D laser scanning system in its Materials Reliability Division located in Boulder, Colorado. The fully automated, CNC programmable system was purchased by NIST primarily for its industry-best high accuracy (0.011 mm) and high resolution (0.005 mm). It is equipped with the industry’s highest-accuracy laser line-scanning probe, the Laser Design SLP-250 with 9 micron accuracy.

“The Laser Design SURVEYOR WS system met all our requirements: high accuracies, the best resolutions, and a compact size for our testing lab,” explains Chris McCowan, NIST materials research engineer.

The SURVEYOR WS system also includes a Renishaw PH-10 (CNC head indexer) and a fourth-axis rotary stage for the most flexible six-axis 3-D scanning available.

The dual system technology is capable of using a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) touch probe as well, for accuracies of up to 0.0001 in. The system advances its next generation capability with a mechanically accurate, highly stable, air-bearing German-engineered Wenzel CMM machine base and patented laser scanning technology from Laser Design. Laser Design’s SURVEYOR WS systems are recognized worldwide as the highest accuracy 3-D laser line-scanning systems.

NIST, a nonregulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce, was founded in 1901 to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology to enhance economic security and improve our quality of life. The Materials Reliability Division within NIST provides standard reference materials, recommended practice guides, and new improved characterization tools to better predict how, when, and why a material fails.

“We will use the SURVEYOR WS system to measure the standard measuring specimens we provide to industry to make sure they conform to NIST-required accuracies,” says McCowan.

NIST personnel are experienced in using the most advanced and accurate measuring technologies to create universal standards of quality, and the Laser Design WS system will be part of their program to determine standards for laser scanning technologies.

“Everyone at Laser Design is very proud to have one of the world’s foremost authorities on setting measurement standards, NIST, view our SURVEYOR WS system as the standard bearer for excellence in the laser measurement world,” says C. Martin Schuster, president and CEO of Laser Design Inc. “With more than 20 years in the high-precision laser measurement business, Laser Design is a leader in the industry. We are very pleased to have met NIST’s demanding requirements to fulfill their need for the highest quality measuring equipment.”