3-D Case Study: Full-Plane 3-D Scans Using ZScanner

(Z Corp.: Burlington, MA) -- When a 30-year-old aircraft arrives in the hangar for retrofitting or repair, the more information engineers have the better.

That's why Texas-based aviation services company, M7 Aerospace, is now offering a new service to create precise, 3-D portraits of entire planes down to one-thousandth of an inch. To execute the job, M7 purchased a Z Corp. ZScanner 700 PX, a precision handheld laser scanner that can scan large objects such as aircraft and automobiles—items that previously have been too big to capture with handheld scanners.

M7 recently used the ZScanner to precisely capture the entire surface of a Fairchild Metroliner at a resolution of 0.1 mm, in just three days. The Fairchild Metroliner is a 19-seat commuter class, turboprop aircraft with a 57-foot wingspan. The same job would have taken weeks or months, if attempted at all, with other scanning technology.

"There's a growing need for both our government and commercial customers to keep their older aircraft flying and productive," says Joe Furnish, M7 Aerospace vice president of engineering services. "This new scanning capability from Z Corp. helps us do that. By automatically capturing deep engineering data, we can more quickly and efficiently reverse-engineer aircraft and components that were originally designed in the 2-D era before 3-D computer-aided design was readily available."

ZScanners are self-positioning 3-D scanners utilizing a combination of photogrammetry and laser scanning technology. Most scanning technology requires jigs, fixtures, tripods, or mechanical arms. The ZScanner's advantage is that it's uniquely handheld and self-referencing; it automatically determines its location in space without the need for external orienting devices. The user simply sweeps the scanner over the target surface and "paints" it with complete freedom of movement around aircraft, automobiles, boats, or other large objects. As the user paints with the scanner, the digitized object appears on a laptop screen, eliminating costly and time-consuming post-processing.

The ZScanner 700 PX's breakthrough in scale stems from built-in AICON photogrammetric software, previously available only in fixed-position 3-D scanners that lack the handheld's mobility, speed, and convenience. This photogrammetry capability, which provides high accuracy on very large objects, is uniquely combined in the ZScanner 700 PX with laser scanning for fine data capture at high resolution.

M7 Aerospace's engineering team worked closely with AGS 3D Inc., of Austin, Texas, to adapt the ZScanner to the specialized needs of an aviation engineering department. AGS 3D is a distributor of Z Corp.'s 3-D printers and 3-D scanners.

In addition to civilian aircraft, M7 Aerospace maintains and modifies legacy aircraft for the U.S. military and foreign governments. Older but still viable aircraft are sometimes called upon to perform more modern roles and require modification such as ballistic blankets, avionics upgrades, and external sensor installations for missile defense systems.

These modifications can be time-consuming and expensive without precise data, which is often lacking due to the absence of original paper design documents, or because of variations in a given craft. Variations in an aircraft can result from manufacturing conditions, modification, and wear and tear.

With the addition of the ZScanner, M7 Aerospace's engineering team can create CAD-ready, 3-D models of an entire aircraft, making the integration of these modern defense systems easier and more cost effective. After ZScanning, both M7 Aerospace and the plane owner have the precise engineering data they need to efficiently repair, modify, or retrofit any plane they encounter. They also have a detailed design template for any plane based on the same design.

"There's an increasing demand for large-scale scanning capability in aviation, as well as other industries that engage in reverse engineering, inspection, 3-D archiving, measurement, damage assessment and similar uses," says Richard Honey, president of AGS 3D. "The ZScanner's speed, accuracy, and ease of use translate into cost savings, new revenue and increased quality."

About The Author

Z Corp.

Z Corp. makes products that enable users to capture, edit, and print 3-D data with unprecedented speed, ease, versatility, and affordability. These products include the world’s fastest high-definition 3-D printers— machines that produce physical 3-D models from digital data in multiple colors—and unique portable 3-D scanners—handheld machines that digitize 3-D surfaces in real time. Z Corporation technology is enabling a wide range of applications in manufacturing, architecture, civil engineering, reverse engineering, geographic information systems, medicine, and entertainment.