Nissan makes major investment in 3D scanning equipment

Citation

(2002), "Nissan makes major investment in 3D scanning equipment", Sensor Review, Vol. 22 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/sr.2002.08722aab.002

Nissan makes major investment in 3D scanning equipment

Nissan makes major investment in 3D scanning equipment

New systems being installed at Nissan facilities worldwide

Keywords: Scanning, Automotive, Nissan

Nissan is looking to cut up to half a million pounds off the cost of each future model manufactured at its plant in Sunderland following a major investment in state-of-the- art laser scanning equipment from 3D Scanners (UK) Ltd.

The state-of-the-art "ModelMaker" scanning system provides the data necessary to create an electronic replica of components with complicated geometries by rapidly digitising surfaces with a laser and sending back the measurements to a computer (Plate 1). This creates a "point cloud" consisting of thousands or even millions of points, which can then be used for surface creation or to inspect the part against CAD specifications.

Plate 1

The investment will result in major time savings in checking prototype body panels against CAD models, to ensure they are being built to prescribed manufacturing tolerances, with the aim of cutting costs through reduced part rejections, and creating faster lead times to market.

ModelMaker is a non-contact industrial laser scanning system which provides fast, accurate digitised results whilst being fully portable and requiring minimal operator training. The operator simply runs a laser line across the object in a series of "stripes" with the data being rendered in real time to create the point cloud, which can contain points as little as 0.1mm apart. It is suitable for any material of any colour, regardless of ambient lighting, and is compatible with all major CAD packages including Pro/ENGINEER, CATIA and I-DEAS.

Ian Bargman, an engineer in Nissan's Quality Assurance Department, explained: "At the moment we fix panels into specially- built gauges, which represent the perfect shape the panel should be. We then drill down through the panel until we reach a subsurface layer positioned beneath it, and measure the distance in between.

"Once we have taken enough measurements like this, we can tell how closely a particular panel matches its design specification. However, this is very time consuming and not as precise as we would like. There are also significant costs involved in making the subsurface layers for each gauge.

"However, ModelMaker can take up to 14,000 readings a second and can scan an entire panel in significantly less time than it takes to drill the panel in the old way. This provides us with a highly accurate virtual representation of the panel, which is then analysed to see how closely it matches the original CAD design data and specifications. If the match is not close enough, we can let the press panel production shop know what changes need to be made to the process."

By eliminating the need for a subsurface layer, Nissan hopes to save half a million pounds per model, helping the plant in its ongoing cost cutting programme initiated as part of the Nissan Revival Plan.

Training from 3D Scanners UK Ltd in the use of the new equipment is currently underway, with the technique set to be applied for the first time to the next generation Primera due to be built on Wearside from the end of 2001.

The installation of the new equipment at Sunderland follows major investment at several Nissan plants in Japan, with others in Spain, the USA and Mexico due to take delivery of new systems from September onwards. Contact: 3D Scanners (UK) Ltd. Tel: +44 (0) 24 7623 6575; www: www.3dscanners.co.uk