3D Model Reshoring with Laser Scanning

3D Model Reshoring with Laser Scanning

Laser scanning can be a vital tool in bringing manufacturing back to the US.

A customer of one of my clients wanted to reshore a line of fishing lures. Production was continuing overseas so the molds were not available. Also, due to the high level of rework required on the lures, it was felt that the overseas molds would not be adequate for US production. My client's customer chose to have new molds built here.

My client, an injection molding company, had already begun production of one lure in the series. Reverse engineering the first molds using conventional methods was very time consuming and required several mold revisions to achieve an acceptable product. Repeating the process on the other lures in the series was going to be prohibitively expensive so Reverse Austin was contacted to see if the process could be expedited using laser scanning.

My client had had less than satisfactory experience with laser scanning performed by a previous vendor. The CAD models produced were comprised of many small surface patches that included small imperfections and which were difficult to tool path.

To show my client that not all laser scanning is created equal, I grabbed an old lure from my tackle box and scanned and modeled it. Based on the results, my client agreed to have me scan and model two of the remaining lures in their customers line.

My client had SLA rapid prototypes made from the Reverse Austin CAD models and submitted the prototypes to their customer for approval. The prototypes were approved and my client has started building the molds.