The new technology of laser scanning recently made it possible for a major university to inexpensively reverse engineer and replicate their cast bronze seal for placement at key locations on campus. The original seal, sculpted in 1963, was salvaged from a building demolished few years ago. A slightly smaller seal was needed for the project, so rather than purchasing a laser-scanning machine, the university shipped the salvaged original seal to the service bureau at GKS Inspection Services, Inc. in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  It was there that laser scanning captured the geometry of the original seal in a 3D electronic file that allows it to be reproduced, and scaled up or down with such a high level of accuracy that it can hardly be distinguished from the original.

 Laser Design’s service bureau scanned the seal into a computer aided design (CAD) file and managed the complete process of creating the new seals involving several other companies. One company created a rapid prototype model from the CAD file, then a pattern shop cast a pattern from the rapid prototype to fix imperfections in the original and cast a perfect pattern which, in time, was supplied to the foundry that cast the actual seals in bronze. The seals will be mounted on a water fountain and on selected sandstone gate walls at the university’s campus entrances.

A university architect and planner faced the challenge of replicating the seal for this project. “The last time around, the university hired an artist to create a seal from scratch, and it was 40 years ago,” he said. “Finding a sculptor to recreate a seal at this point in time would have been very expensive and time consuming. This time we decided to see if technology that had been developed since then could do the job faster and cheaper. We fairly quickly zeroed in on laser scanning. The technology looked appropriate but it hardly would have made sense for the university to purchase a laser scanning machine for this one project.”

So, assisted by a student, he looked for a service bureau that could handle the project. “We got connected with a company that was extremely helpful, not only in their laser scanning capabilities but also in their expertise in a wide range of reverse engineering technologies. GKS Inspection Services explained the entire process, helped us select from the various alternatives and ended up providing a complete solution that gave us excellent quality at a fraction of the cost.”

“The pieces look great, even better than the original,” the architect said. “The price was also great. We ended up buying four castings for less than $10,000 and that includes an electronic file and a pattern that we can use whenever we need additional copies. The delivery time for the project was better than I expected. We received the seals almost exactly two months from the time we issued a purchase order. GKS Inspection Services managed the entire project from start to finish. These new seals are being implemented at several very important projects that are critical to the university’s Master Plan. This experience has demonstrated that laser scanning service bureau is the way to go for geometrically complex architectural details that need to be reproduced to high levels of accuracy.”