[Above: Chris Fay, vice president of TPM, prepares a FARO Focus 3-D laser scanner at the Children’s Museum of the Upstate.]
3-D scanning and printing have proved to be essential tools for some of the Upstate’s largest industries
Used to streamline the workflow from design to manufacturing with greater efficiency, 3-D scanning and printing has revolutionized early conceptual design, prototyping and production.
As part of the Upstate’s manufacturing ecosystem, industry experts say scanning technology can provide existing corporations with an essential tool to bring their products into the market more quickly and with improved reliability.
A member of Greenville’s business community for more than 40 years, TPM, a software technology company, contributes about half of its business to design software, said vice president Chris Fay.
The company works with architectural, civil and structural engineers, contractors and a number of major manufacturers to help with the design process, he said.
The use of 3-D scanning allows manufacturers to recreate the complex geometry often associated with machine parts, Fay said. Quite often, mechanical parts do not have any design data attached to them, he said. By scanning an existing manufacturing component, the part’s precise measurements can be learned and duplicated, or modified as needed.
Fay said 3-D scanning also provides a valuable asset for inspection purposes.
In any major manufacturing process, a team of professionals will inspect a new product once it has been created, he said. Capable of detecting the slightest miscalculation, the scanning process can help to verify slight miscues in the product’s design early on.
[WATCH: TPM vice president Chris Fay talks to UBJ reporter Joe Toppe about computer-generated design, trends in 3D printing and more. Video by Susana Shetler]
Area manufacturers such as Michelin, Honeywell, Bosch, Champion Aerospace and GE have metrology experts using scanning technology, Fay said.
These experts utilizing 3-D technology are “taking measurements down to the millionth,” he said. With the use of portable scanners, the appropriate personnel can now go onto the manufacturing floor to scan for measurements rather than removing a part from a machine and taking it to a specific room.
Kevin Kirtley at GE Power and Water said the precision of 3-D scanning enables his company to produce what it designs, while 3-D printing allows designers to rapidly prototype new ideas.
Traditional manufacturing methods have intrinsic design limits, but the 3-D technology allows designers to build complicated components that were not possible before now, he said. From an inspection standpoint, the process can also guarantee repairs to components will match product design specifications.
Industry professionals say the advent of 3-D scanning and printing has drastically shortened the design process and in consequence, the return on investment.
Engineers are billed by the hour, Fay said. If a company can save time by using scanning technology, there is a huge ROI, and “everything in manufacturing is based on ROI,” he said. Also, the technology offers an unparalleled accuracy to “get it right the first time” with parts that cannot be physically measured.
Fay said most manufacturers are applying some form of high-tech measurement capability to their design process.
Laser scanning and printing are becoming more cost-effective, accessible and mobile, and are experiencing a 30 to 40 percent annual growth, he said.
