The full-service, custom plastic injection molding company provides a full range of design and engineering services, as well as custom tooling and manufacturing.

GKS was contacted about a problem with a forged metal turbine blades in the axial flow compressor. Many of the forged blades exhibited cracking, and engineers could not determine the cause. The client did not possess the blades' CAD drawings, so they were not able to perform simulated stress analysis with the exact CAD models. The consulting company was tasked with determining why the blades cracked and how to remedy the problem...

GKS recently saved a trucking accessories company a minimum of $8K in the design of light-emitting diode (LED) marker lights for over-the-road trucks by quickly identifying a problem that would have taken more than a week to solve using conventional engineering methods.

The emerging technology of laser scanning is helping a manufacturer of blow molded beverage containers maintain high levels of quality by accurately duplicating models provided by customers.

Laser scanning helped a medical device manufacturer validate the design of a new venous filter by ensuring that the computer aided design (CAD) geometry used as the starting point matched a molded part that had been proven safe in the field.

In the past, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of fuel tanks used coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) to inspect first articles, but the geometry of the tanks is so complex that it was difficult to fully inspect the surface one point at a time. The manufacturer has achieved significant improvements in quality by switching to laser scanning

A maker of replacement parts for locomotive diesel engines reduced the time needed to inspect after market components for diesel engines by 50% by switching from a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to laser scanning. The company must make sure that its replacement products match the original equipment components within exacting tolerances.

In the final phase of developing a new single-stage snowthrower the company ran into an interference problem between two large rotor housing components. One of the parts was made of an injection molded polymer, the other was stamped steel. The design required major portions of adjacent surfaces on the two parts to align in order to assemble and function properly...

The machine shop company was awarded a fabrication job with a major auto manufacturer. They were contacted with a 12-week convertible roof project timeframe from start to finish. However, the auto manufacturer always requires production part approval prior to the first production shipment. The machine shop company quickly built the tooling for manufacturing the convertible roof. They then needed to inspect it for accuracy. Error tolerances were extremely low...

The company was developing a new unit used for cellular network testing which consisted of a cellular phone placed inside an electronics enclosure and interfaced with other specially designed electronic components while maintaining the full functionality of the phone's connectors. The problem arose in measuring the phone's complex, curvy geometry.

A GKS customer who makes patented wire-free charging systems for consumer electronic product needed an exact replica of irregularly shaped electronic devices in CAD format so they could develop their own CAD files for making the molds or tools for their charging adapters. Curved surfaces and irregular shapes are difficult to measure accurately and take a very long time. GKS provided a means to quickly obtain accurate CAD data of the complex geometry of the electronic products.

A major worldwide automotive supplier was planning to begin producing a fan in Asia that was already being produced in North America. Their customer urgently required a solid model for space planning to confirm the selected design. The fan had originally been designed in 2D, therefore no 3D model existed.

A custom jewelry design company with high-profile customers required the high precision of laser scanning to create a unique piece for a unique customer. The customer, a professional athlete with his own line of shoes, wanted to make exact replicas to 1/10 scale of all of his shoes, and string them together into a unique solid gold necklace.

A medical device manufacturer needed to modify an existing model of a plastic resin heart to demonstrate a new cardiac device product. The company needed the unit to fit the new device and then manipulate it in the CAD software.

The company was due to showcase its vacuums at a show. The “brain” which runs and guides the vacuum is highly sophisticated, but the housing was still in rough form. On a very short development timeline, a new housing for the vacuum needed to be created...

The challenge for manufacturing is to produce complicated 3D designs to very demanding levels of accuracy while keeping costs at a reasonable level. A consulting design firm is helping to meet this challenge by combining the technologies of laser scanning and lost foam casting.

A kitchen products manufacturer had a design made for the surface of a waffler that incorporates a bouquet of roses design while also meeting requirements to pull the waffle out of the iron. The design was so geometrically complex that engineers felt it would be very difficult to manually create the solid model geometry required for accurate and efficient manufacturing.

Many of stamping dies used by Japanese automobiles are built in Asia under very tight deadlines. As soon as the dies are capable of building acceptable parts they are rushed to the U.S. Often there is not enough time to produce the dimensional data that is needed later to produce replacement parts when the die becomes worn or is damaged.

A mold maker that switched from using a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to a laser scanning service bureau saved an average of one week per reverse engineering project by reducing digitizing and modeling time.

Building accurate molds to produce seats for snowmobiles and other personal all-terrain and off-road vehicles has recently become easier for one company. With the use of laser scanners at GKS Inspection Services, it is now possible to reverse engineer delicate components of the foam seats with a high degree of precision.

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.

Decorative trim components are designed to provide a perfect fit with a particular make and model of vehicle. Achieving this fit requires that the original components, such as the instrument panel or armrest, be reverse engineered to a high degree of accuracy.

New technologies in laser scanning have resulted in the creation of a completely new protective seat fabrication process for Indy Racing League (IRL) cars. IRL drivers are required to be surrounded by cocoon-like seats designed to protect them during crashes at speeds in excess of 220 mph.

Internal components of a digital projector needed to fit within a 2.05 inch by 3.69 inch by 9.75 inch. The problem with verifying the fit of components produced by rapid prototyping is that tolerances are typically much looser than the finished parts. They provide only a rough idea of how the assembly fits together.

A manufacturer of roofing materials had been using the same molds for years to make shake shingles of PVC and wood. “The molds were old and beat-up,” said the project designer. The manufacturer needed new molds, but didn’t have the CAD data to have them created by the tool company.

An avid mushroom hunter was fascinated with interesting shapes in nature, so on a recent morel foraging expedition he had an intriguing idea which combined his engineering vocation with his nature-loving avocation: to accurately recreate a complex, convoluted morel mushroom with a Stratasys Fused Deposition Modeling rapid prototype system directly from 3D CAD files.

A company needed design standardization across their golf products division. Pressure was mounting to make their tooling methods and designs universally usable at all of their many manufacturing sites worldwide. They wanted to consolidate the design and development process, and archive historical design data that had been created in many different formats.

A customer of a blow mold company wanted to make a new gallon jug but did not have any digital data for it. The digital CAD data would allow the company to create tool paths to cut the cavities in a solid plastic piece and create new molds in two halves with the pin and bushing.

The corporation’s occupational health and environmental safety division was tasked with developing a new face shield for welders. About half-way through the design and prototyping phase, the product development specialist and his team realized they needed to improve the aesthetics of the design...

Laser scanners are often seen as being competitive with coordinate measuring machines (CMMs) and in some cases even providing a replacement for them. Although ever more frequently, laser scanners are being used in conjunction with CMMs in order to take advantage of the complementary capabilities of each type of measurement system.

For some of the components used on ships and submarines, the Navy does not always have sufficient documentation from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to competitively procure replacement components.

When Rus Emerick at Schneider Electric first used Laser Design’s laser scanning system, he expected to acquire clean, accurate scan data, and his expectations were more than met. What he didn’t expect was being able to use the same scan data in many ways, from design and first article inspection to functional forensics and even training, saving his company both time and money in the process

Using the LDI laser scanning system to scan ancient tablets seemed like a natural transfer of the technology and good use of departmental resources to delve into the etiology of the cuneiform artifacts.

The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) hosted a series of workshops recently for area industries to learn about the advanced technology of the Laser Design FA-10P7 3D Laser Scanning system they recently purchased

The loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia because of damage to its thermal protection system (TPS) during launch spurred a search for methods of repairing the TPS in space. The most important and hardest part of the TPS to repair is the Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) material ...

The gas management system of a vertical launch weapon system used on surface ships is lined with ablative to protect the structure. Efforts to improve the design of the gas management system rely upon measuring the ablative material after a launch so that, for example, areas with heavy wear can be beefed up and areas with light wear can be reduced.

Reverse engineering, or digitizing a physical part, is a critical task for any mold and pattern shop. With laser scanning technology, parts can be scanned at a much higher level of resolution than is possible with a digital probe, thereby quickly producing a surface model ready for machining.

A local automotive after-parts manufacturer is now able to move products to market four weeks faster after switching from a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) to a laser scanner. When company engineers used a CMM to measure interior components, the limited number of points that they were able to acquire meant that several weeks were usually required to convert them to a surface model.

A machining company has substantially increased its revenues by adding a laser scanner to a CMM to increase its accuracy and speed. With upgrade kits that offer the ability to attach a laser probe to a CMM, the laser scanner can capture almost 15,000 points per second. Nearly a hundred thousand times faster than a CMM, it is still possible to quickly switch back to the CMM probe for highly accurate measurements of individual points.

Dr. Suzanne Strait, a vertebrate paleontologist, has been creating archaeological research projects for over 10 years. When she heard about 3D laser scanning, she knew it would be a ideal tool for her research on the comparative anatomy of fossil mammal teeth: faster, more accurate, easier to do, non-contact, and in 3D.

MINNEAPOLIS, MN - GKS Inspection Services, a global provider of dimensional inspection, 3D laser scanning, and terrestrial scanning services for more than 25 years, announced that its laser scanning and CAD modeling service bureau in Pune, India, GKS Inspection Services India Pvt. LTD, has expanded into a larger facility because of dramatic growth in demand for laser scanning services.

An individual wanted to scan a jet ski engine component to create a CAD model of the part. One of the side mounts was broken and needed to be recreated in the digital model. Oftentimes, old parts are no longer manufactured or have no CAD data available, so when they wear out or break, they are difficult to replace...

Being able to reverse engineering complex free-form shapes became an urgent need for a manufacture of scale-model kits for hobbyists when a customer had an order with a quick turnaround. The project was for the patterns, tooling, and cast parts for production of a 1:4 scale model outboard boat kit. Laser scanning would provide the ideal solution to capturing the free-form curves of the propeller.

Keystone Sporting Arms started out as a service bureau customer of GKS Inspection Services, a division of Laser Design, Inc., when they were expanding their line of aftermarket rifle stocks. A new stock model had a more involved free-form shape than previously and they needed accurate and complete CAD data in order to mill the shape precisely.

Laser Design Inc was named one of America’s fastest-growing private companies by Inc. Magazine for the second year in a row. The 2008 “Inc. 5,000” award honors 5000 U.S.-based, privately held, independent companies that are ranked according to percentage revenue growth from 2004 through 2007.

Laser scanning is gaining popularity every day as a key tool in manufacturing’s quality assurance processes. Maintaining and improving quality is of upmost importance in certain industries, because when parts fail, people are in danger. Laser scanning assures and improves the quality of manufactured parts and the manufacturing process in many distinct ways.

To fit a paintball gun accessory, attachment or a replacement part precisely with the paintball gun itself, the design engineer needs exact CAD data of the gun’s surface shape. GKS scanned the paintball gun and broke out different areas for various add-on accessories...

GKS laser scanned a square-headed driver that was to be redesigned. Its surface was very shiny, but the engineers did not want to use surface spray on the club. They decided to use a thin layer of car wax to mitigate the specularity of the club before scanning, and then used software filters and Laser Design’s Point Cloud DeNoiser software to minimize the “noise” generated off shiny surfaces.

A manufacturer of performance engine components was redesigning one of their cylinders with a water jacket through a reverse engineering process. The assembled jacket contained “hidden” areas that were not accessible to common measuring technologies, not contact nor non-contact.

As Hollywood appeals to Gen Xers with movie version stories about their favorite toys of the 1980s, manufacturers soon follow with nostalgic remakes of the toys themselves. However, CAD models of products were not ubiquitous like they are today, so many of the popular items have no 3D models from which to recreate the toys.

A company that designs and fabricates active-function artificial finger prostheses for partial finger amputees contacted GKS Inspection Services about doing scans of two small hand casts for which they were creating prosthetic devices. The devices are body-powered, light-weight, and allow users to regain complete control of the flexion and extension movements of an artificial finger.

GKS Inspection Services has opened a second Pune office in the heart of the industrial zone of Bhosari specializing in onsite dimensional inspection and 3D laser scanning projects using a FARO Platinum CMM arm and Laser Design laser scanner.

GKS laser scanned several specimens of dung beetle horns for an entomologist who is seeking a method for accurately calculating the volumes of these tiny items. Eventually the scientist hopes to scan over 50 dung beetle horns to determine how much energy goes into producing them, presumably improving that beetle’s chances of passing on his DNA.

Turbine blades are everywhere and present a difficult challenge to their manufacturers: How to accurately produce and maintain their complex free-form surfaces and convoluted shapes. Enter 3D Laser Scanning which is highly automated and insures consistency and quality of the data obtained.

GKS Inspection Services has expanded its roster of capabilities to include Computed Tomography (CT) scanning services and systems sales, which are available at their locations worldwide. High-accuracy CT scanning enables 3D scanning of parts with very complex internal geometry.

One issue that has been common in reverse engineering scanning projects for all industries over the years is making sure that customers know exactly what type of CAD file deliverable they want from GKS based on what they will be doing with the data and their budget.

The Challenge: Create a CAD model of a free-form model tugboat hull to be remanufactured. The original hull could not be damaged because it was the only replica available so making a mold from it was not possible. A CAD model was the only alternative that would allow for manufacturing an accurate mold.

The Challenge: The customer wanted to scale up a one-of-a-kind aircraft concept model to build a large flyable remote-controlled replica. However, no CAD data or blueprints existed for the aircraft model.

GKS Inspection Services announced that it will be opening service bureau offices in Buffalo/Niagara Falls, NY and in Los Angeles, CA in 2009.

GKS announced that the company’s Detroit-area metrology lab is now registered for the export and temporary import of items that are regulated by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), and is now eligible to perform metrology and reverse engineering services on defense articles that appear on the United States Munitions List

A company developed an initial prototype of an anti-snoring device based on many years of research in the field of dentistry. He designed and created a functional device that comfortably and healthily helps cure snoring.

When you think of "Medicine" what comes to mind? An emergency room full of accident victims? A researcher curing diseases in the developing world? Or just getting rid of your own annoying low-back pain? What you probably don’t think of are high-precision non-contact scanning technologies.

Dentistry’s roots date back to prehistoric times when the practice consisted mainly of tooth drilling and extractions. Today dentists, orthodontists, and oral surgeons need advanced technologies to support their advanced care of the teeth, gums, and supporting bone structures.

The customer was designing an improved aftermarket supercharger from the external casting of an old OEM stock supercharger, for which there was no CAD model.

You have a carefully crafted clay prototype made by a top design artist. Each detail is exquisite and you want to make sure every last one is molded into the finished article. How can you quickly and accurately digitize your intricate free-form shape and then fabricate it on a condensed timeline?

The customer was an established maker of fine spirits, with a distinctive (and very complex) glass bottle design. The customer’s glass bottle mold was damaged and needed to be replaced. Due to its old age, no digital data existed for the complex and detailed bottle so they were unable to make repairs to the original mold in CAD.

The customer, a supplier for a large company, wanted to make sure his tooling for one of the parts he supplied matched the original CAD which was created many years earlier. Because of their age, the molds were somewhat worn.

The majority of marine vessels that are in service today do not have digital documentation or CAD models. Despite the fact that vessels under construction today are being designed based on 3D data, they suffer the same lack of documentation of their true as-built geometries.

By purchasing a new 3D scanning system from Laser Design, your company could save thousands off your 2009 tax bill.

Laser Design Inc., the leading supplier of 3D laser scanners for more than 20 years, was named one of America’s fastest-growing private companies by Inc. Magazine for the third year in a row.

Ask GKS’s veteran metrologists what is the most unusual scan they have ever performed and they can’t give you an answer—they can give you many!

The customers were several suppliers of a multinational company with locations in the Far East and the USA. The casting was to be scanned and inspected to make sure its tooling produced the same exact part and the same quality wherever it was being fabricated.

Laser Design Inc., the leading supplier of 3D laser scanners for over 20 years, announced that Schneider Electric recently installed a Laser Design-FARO arm laser scanning system in its Cedar Rapids, Iowa facility. The system will be used for verifying plastic injection mold tooling prior to production runs.

Laser Design, Inc. announced that the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has installed a Laser Design SURVEYOR™ WS Series 3D laser scanning system in the Materials Reliability Division located in Boulder, CO.

The customer, a manufacturer of gas pump parts, needed a 3D CAD model of a cast part in order to reverse engineer it. The part was created before 3D CAD models were common, so its only documentation consisted of a 2D drawing. The part had complex geometry and an internal cavity.

Kimberly-Clark, the well known company with brands such as Kleenex, Scott & Huggies, needed to determine if a capital investment in larger diameter embossing modules is needed instead of the current embosser...

Laser Design announced that Bountiful Baby® has installed a Laser Design SURVEYOR™ WS Series 3D laser scanning system in its factory in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Litigating in the aftermath of accidents is big business in the U.S. today. The costs of the lawsuit system are estimated to be several billion dollars a year. With such large sums of money riding on the outcomes of lawsuits every year, tools are needed to insure that the cases are decided correctly and fairly...

In an effort to streamline their verification process, a well established foundry turns to GKS to perform 3D laser scanning on castings.

Laser Design Inc. announced that Carley Foundry recently installed a Laser Design scanning system using the FaroArm in its Blaine, Minnesota facility.

A mechanical engineering firm was contracted to install new cooling equipment in a municipal ice rink’s mechanical room. The challenge was to design the equipment install without tearing out the old equipment first and to install some elements and piping that housed the refrigerant around the current equipment configuration to limit downtime of the facility when the cooling unit was actually disconnected.

Laser Design Inc. announced that Schneider Electric has recently made four installations of Laser Design SURVEYOR™ 3D laser scanning systems in its international network of manufacturing plants.

Manufacturers in every day and age have jockeyed for the coveted first-to-market position in introducing their ground-breaking, innovative products to the public. Today more than ever, speed and quality give product manufacturers the competitive advantage. Reducing time to market creates the biggest opportunity to increase bottom-line profitability.

The capabilities of GKS Global Services spans the gamut from high-accuracy 3D laser scanning to 3D CAD model creation to product design and development to testing and analysis. This project for an optics company involved all of those phases – full engineering services to bring about a successful product launch.

Time Compression Technologies explores: What do you do if you have a die or mold that was made long ago and you don’t have any computer-aided design (CAD) data for it? What do you do if you have a model that was crafted by a sculptor and you’d like to use it for a product?

New releases of Geomagic Studio and Geomagic Qualify, the leading reverse engineering and inspection software for Laser Design bring unparalleled ease of use to the market for 3D scanning software, along with powerful new features that improve results and save time.

Implementing a Laser Design SURVEYOR 3D laser scanning system purchase into your R&D process may permit a $100,000+ tax credit in the first year!

In 2006, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) kicked off a project called the Vehicle Design Summit (VDS) which today has grown into a large international consortium of teams from universities and innovative companies seeking, amongst other pressing global needs dealing with energy and transportation, to develop a vehicle that dramatically reduces energy, materials, and toxics used in vehicles.

GKS Global Services recently celebrated 29 years in business by completing its 20,000th project.

A major manufacturer of high-tech bicycles, in their ongoing quest to improve the efficiency and aerodynamics of their bikes, has been testing them in a wind tunnel since 2000. The goal is to improve design to reduce drag, so the same amount of power will create more speed and better air flow.

Laser Design, Inc. and FARO Technologies (NASDAQ: FARO) announced their partnership in developing a next-generation scanning technology system, the Magnaline 240. This strategic partnership will allow both companies to bring their combined technologies to a wider base of innovative customers.

The guitar maker (luthier) began making custom guitars in the late 1970s. He made an especially ornate one-of-a-kind electric guitar body in the early 1980s. Many professional musicians had played it and given it rave reviews. The luthier decided that he wanted to document his classic creation and create an updated version based on his 20-plus years of experience in the guitar making field that could be produced in limited quantities with computer numerical controlled (CNC) machine tools at a local woodworking shop.

Donnelly Custom Manufacturing Company, based in Alexandria, MN, is a leader in short-run injection molding. With over 200 employees, Donnelly sets the standard of excellence in custom injection molding by delivering exceptional service and solutions to help their leading industrial OEM customers succeed.

The company is known for repairing, overhauling, and restoring radial aircraft engines of World War II vintage for cargo fleets, fire fighters, militaries, nostalgia operators, collectors, and museums throughout the world. With many decades in the business, the company’s engineers provide expert workmanship and advanced overhaul equipment to keep radial engines safely in the skies. They have also expanded into parts manufacturing and QEC assembly.

The hot new iPad and iPhone products have caused a big stir in the consumer electronics market. As with any new electronic device, scads of new accessories appear with little lag time to serve the early adopter customer base. The aim of being first to market with these accessories means that these companies urgently need quality 3D data fast.

Many industries are now benefitting from the increased speed of 3D laser scanning to significantly reduce the time required for product development, functional analysis, and inspection of their products.

RavenWorks’ employees, hot-rod enthusiasts every one, saw a need in the market for replacement parts for vintage vehicles. To faithfully reproduce select in-demand “extinct” parts, they came to Laser Design for a duel-purpose high-accuracy 3D laser scanning system.

Recognized as a pioneer and leader in the rotational molding industry domestically and internationally, the company is known for innovative design and the ability to incorporate new technology and new materials in state-of-the-art products for a wide variety of businesses.

Jamie Goldstein from Newton, MA, was fifteen years old and an aspiring car designer when he sculpted an elaborate car design in clay. Having the foresight to create a design portfolio of his work, he wanted to make a more durable model of the clay car, painted and detailed.

A moldmaker wanted to re-qualify used molds to see if they needed refurbishing, and if so, where to make the corrections.

Laser Design Inc. announced that it is now reselling Renishaw metrology probes and machine tooling, plus professional "Repair by Exchange," and also used equipment.

Easy-to-use, low-cost Artec™, Creaform, and 3Shape 3D scanners are now being offered for sale.

The customer was familiar with the concept of 3D modeling and searched the Internet for a service provider. GKS was the strongest option on his results list so he contacted an account manager.

Mystery Science Theater 3000, an award-winning television comedy, created many unique puppet characters in the course of its 20-year existence. Producers wanted to create a collector’s item of one of the show’s robot characters. They knew that 3D laser scanning would provide the most accurate and detailed model from which realistic figures could be easily manufactured.

Laser Design Inc., the leading supplier of 3D laser scanners for more than 20 years, introduced a new high-precision line of 3D scanners, the Surveyor ZS-Series. It is based on the Spectrum CMM platform from Carl Zeiss Industrial Metrology, the world-renowned manufacturer of high-accuracy measurement equipment.

The Minnesota company designs and manufactures a unique line of small electrically powered watercraft inspired by the enjoyment of personal recreational experiences up-close in the land of 10,000 lakes.

Back in the mid-1980s entrepreneur C. Martin Schuster had a novel idea: use line-laser scanning to accurately digitize and model complex 3D shapes so they be used in CAD/CAM systems for industrial manufacturing.

Fact or fiction?: Data acquired with 3D scanning is inferior to that acquired via touch probe and CMM——This is FICTION! 3D scanning captures tens of thousands of points per second, an enormous amount of data that makes the process statistically superior.

What other misconceptions about 3D scanning have you heard (and maybe believed)?

GKS Services Corp. was founded in 1981 as a scanning services bureau. The company has grown in its 30-year history to become a sought-after expert in dimensional inspection, 3D laser scanning, computed tomography (CT) scanning, and long-range scanning, completing well over 20,000 projects.

Orthopedic devices, with their focus on fit and support for the human form, are advancing rapidly as we learn more about how to optimally heal and rehab injuries. GKS Services specializes in 3D laser scanning, which can produce a fast, precise CAD model of whatever body part is affected.

This type of commercial application showcases the remarkable capabilities of 3D laser scanning to accurately, completely, and quickly facilitate changes in scale; small items can be made larger to scale or larger items can be scaled down.

Miniature figurines have long been a source of interest for collectors and military enthusiasts. Historical battles can be completely recreated on a small scale with hundreds of figurines, each one representing a regiment or battle group.

Companies working with molds must often make changes to the shape of tooling right on the shop-floor. These continuous improvements are necessary to avoid delays in production due to imperfect manufacturing results.

Bell Helicopter's "Huey" is one of the world's most recognizable helicopters. Primarily used by the US Marine Corps, the current model UH-1Y's design stems from the original UH-1 developed in 1955.

NASA routinely performs maintenance and repair on the 40,000+ unique heat resistant tiles covering the space shuttle. Tiles are usually repaired by removing them, filling the space with plaster, and then machining a new one based on the shape of the plaster.

The US Department of Energy has funded the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory for advanced research in fusion power. Using a device called a stellarator, the PPPL has been able to generate a million-degree fusion reaction that is magnetically suspended inside the stellarator's experimental and unique shape.

A Minnesota company who manufacturers high quality ATV, snowmobile, and motorcycle parts and accessories designed and manufactured a prototype snow blade for the Yamaha Grizzly ATV. The company needed a faster and more accurate way to capture the ATV’s geometry for their part design and development process.

The affordability, efficiency and quality of the turboprop engine has spurred its widespread use in various industries since its entry into the market. Acme Turbine Company*, a turbine blade manufacturing company, wanted to gain a competitive advantage by producing superior blades at a lower cost.

The Rotunda of the National Archives Museum is the final resting place of the Declaration of Independence, one of our nation's most treasured documents. Over time, the unique hand-crafted frame has become worn down, leaving its intricacies muted and details eroded.

Aftermarket manufacturers are unable to fully take advantage of OEM CAD data because of the slight variations between the CAD data and the as-built part, especially for body panels. Furthermore, automakers offer their own competitive in-house brands as an alternative to third-party companies.

Omix-Ada is the premier manufacturer of Jeep replacement, restoration and accessory products, including the Rugged Ridge accessory line of floormats. Currently, Jeep floormats are either “carpet,” thermoformed rubber that fits the car, or “deep” all-weather flat floormats that are not formed to fit.

Since its introduction in the 1960s, the MC-130E Talon I has been modified on a nearly continuous basis to incorporate more and more modern technology into its legacy design. One such addition is of a state-of-the-art radar system which would be housed inside a radome that was hand-crafted from fiberglass in the 1950s.

Situation Truck Armor Kit The vast amount of supplies being sent into Iraq has been key to the U.S. Military's efforts in the region. Convoys of trucks loaded with supplies have been entering Iraq from Kuwait for the past several years; however, the lightly armored trucks offer very little protection for the drivers against projectiles and explosives. DRS Radian was contracted to develop armor kits for several models of trucks in order to ensure the safety of the drivers.

Engineered Metals and Composites, Inc. (EM&C) is the premier OEM manufacturer of aluminum towers and small products for the marine industry. From T-tops, hard tops and towers, to rod holders, leaning posts, rails and poling platforms, they provide the highest quality enhancements and accessories for fishing and pleasure boats.

Situation Original, CAD, and Internal Features Medical training programs are the cornerstone of successful medical practice. Medical Education Technologies Inc. (METI), a developer of medical training products, lost its only supplier of the PediaSIM® airway, leaving them with physical models but no CAD data and no way to manufacture them.

In 1994, NASA obtained a specially modified Boeing 757-200 to be used for aeronautical research. Named the ARIES, or Airborne Research Integrated Experiments System, the aircraft has gone through numerous customizations and modifications to earn its "flying laboratory" nickname. Over time, NASA realized that in order to maintain the ARIES as its premier research aircraft, they would need to modify the fairings.

BSCI Energy Impact Systems is a leader in the development and research of foam safety components and has pioneered innovations that have set the industry standard in professional racing. BSCI’s successes are driven by their understanding of the importance of properly designed and functioning padding inside the car - padding that helps protect drivers from the tremendous forces applied during a crash.

The National Park Service’s Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument in Idaho contains the largest concentration of Hagerman Horse (Equus simplicidens) fossils in North America. The NPS paleontologists at the Fossil Beds were curious about the technology of 3D scanning, but had never used it in their research.

Digital models of massive aircraft such as the Airbus A319 can be tested via computational fluid dynamics (CFD) if the model is accurate enough to the actual physical shape.

Elan Motorsports uses a standard fiberglass lay-up process to create the shell (outer body mold) of their VanDiemen DP02 Sports Racer. Based off the model design of an existing racer body, Elan needed to know the shell's dimensions in order to correctly place the engine and chassis.

Engineers often need to design parts that fit inside objects that lack CAD data. The measurements of these legacy parts are typically obtained via calipers or a Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM).

Based on and inspired by a '54 Chevy, the Southern 408 looks and feels like an American classic. To help bring this classic street rod to market, Southern Motor Company partnered with Panoz Automotive.

AGCO, one of the world's largest distributors of agricultural equipment, needed to recreate to key components of an engine coupler. The two large gears had combined cast and machined surfaces.

CertainTeed, a complete building products manufacture, needed to reverse engineer existing roofing tile cutters. The cutters are currently in use by CertainTeed, however no CAD model of the physical parts existed.

Denton ATD Inc, a leading provider of Anthromorphic Test Devices (ATDs), needed to update the shape and features of many of their existing ATDs. Because the parts were designed and manufactured many years ago, most lacked any CAD data.

While structurally strong and economically viable, most plastic parts today suffer from warpage of their otherwise rigid structure over long distances or under differing amounts of pressure.

Gilbarco, a leading global supplier of fuel dispensing equipment, needed to optimize fluid flow through a complicated cast part. Gilbarco wanted to use computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analysis in order to quickly optimize the shape for fluid flow but no CAD data of the cast part existed.

Heritage Manufacturing, Inc., a revolver manufacturer, needed to reproduce a legacy part gun. Because Heritage had no existing CAD data to aid in design assistance, they would need to find a way to extract the dimensions of the housing and loading gate of the gun.

J.C. Steele & Sons, the largest producer of heavy clay machinery in the United States, needed to remodel some of their existing steel machine parts. The function of the machinery depends on the tight fit between the individual parts.

Microprocessor Designs, a product design and development company, needed to obtain CAD data of a desktop-sized ‘donut’ consisting of four sections. The complex sections contain numerous bolt-holes and features which are critical to the function and fit of the part.

Panoramic Inc., a designer and manufacturer of custom thermoformed plastic packaging products, needed to reverse engineer existing paper packaging to create new plastic packaging.

Collectors of ancient artifacts know that while rare and sometimes extremely valuable, the preservation and maintenance of relics of the past is of the upmost importance. While restoration of such antiquities can extend their life, the chemical reactions taking place within their ancient materials mean that decay and deterioration is unavoidable.

Blister packs and other thermoformed parts often present problems to design engineers. Frequently there are numerous complex shapes, blends, and radii.

The CAD Workshop, a Dassault Systemes training company, needed to obtain CAD data of an aircraft lightbulb unit, which consists of an assembly of 9 separate parts.

Scaling hand made sculptures is extremely difficult, time consuming, and sometimes impossible. Urbana needed to create a master pattern of their hand made sculpture for plaster casting.

In entertainment, smaller microphones mean less interference with performers’ ability to move. To further miniaturize mikes, a design of smaller printed circuit boards and housings was needed to enable the smallest possible size product while still protecting the electronics. See how this was accomplished.

When a full-motion personal racing simulation company needed spot-on mounting locations for a new system, they found even more reasons for needing high-precision laser scanning...

Laser Design Inc. announced the unveiling of its newest and most automated inspection-grade 3D scanning system, the SURVEYOR Auto Gage 3D.

Laser Design reintroduced the portable Surveyor PS-Series 3D Scanners for fast, high-quality, affordable 3D scanning. The systems provide high accuracy imaging for advanced 3D scanning while being one of the most reasonably priced systems available on the market.

Laser Design and GKS is proud to announce that one of their engineering services customers, Sbyke USA, LLC, has won awards for its outstanding patented rear-steer kick scooter from both Popular Science and Parenting magazines.

This veterinary orthopedic implant company needed a comprehensive training video for its hip replacement surgery but had no digital representation of its product from which to make it. GKS scanned all 27 parts involved, created CAD models, and assembled them to show the exact procedure in the animation.