Artec Leo helps Weldco-Beales capture geometry of heavy equipment for reverse engineering

Canadian manufacturers Weldco-Beales were looking for ways to improve the accuracy, safety, and speed in which it can capture the geometry of heavy equipment for reverse engineering. Due to the nature of the company’s business, equipment is most often outdoors and in challenging conditions. Weldco-Beales found that old measurement methods were no longer meeting its expectations, and the team started looking into 3D scanning solutions.

This is where Javelin Technologies comes in. Javelin, a TriMech Company, is a gold-certified Artec partner. The company has also previously worked with Weldco-Beales for many years.

About Weldco-Beales

First established in 1945, Weldco-Beales provides a large variety of products from truck-mounted cranes, and long-reach brooms for excavators, to customised solutions for specialised use cranes. The company provides solutions for customers from various industries including construction, forestry, mining, road maintenance, scrap recycling, and many more. The Canadian manufacturers are regularly faced with many requirements and expectations that clients expect to be met due to the company's near-century-old reputation.

“People look at our work and think, these people don’t skip steps or cut corners. We’re not afraid to embrace new technology and our customers see that happening right in front of them,” said Mike Aceto, Senior Engineering Manager at Weldco-Beales.

Javelin Technologies introduces Weldco-Beales to the Artec Leo 3D scanning system

The new technologies that Weldco-Beales was looking to adopt needed to improve safety, while also being able to take measurements in difficult conditions. From outdoor locations, and uneven terrain, to confined or high spaces, safety is just as big of a concern for Weldco-Beales as accuracy, speed, and portability. Improvisation and older measurement methods were no longer meeting the standards the Canadian company had set for itself.

To discover how the company could best help Weldco-Beales, the Javelin team analysed the needs and expectations of the company before making suggestions. 

Artec Leo seemed to be the perfect solution. The AI-driven 3D scanner offers a mobile scanning experience, with real-time 3D model projection on an inbuilt touch screen. Which is ideal for the challenging environments that Weldco-Beales faces.

“A 3D scanner is a big purchase that brings immediate value and quick return on investment. We saw the impact on our business right away. And we chose to purchase from Javelin because we value the ongoing relationship we have with them,” Aceto explained. “I especially like that they offer more than one type of technology solution and can help in various ways.”

The Artec Leo ensures improved accuracy, portability, speed, and safety with a point accuracy of up to 0.1mm, 3D resolution of up to 0.2mm, and data acquisition speeds of up to 35 million points per second.

Key specs of the Artec Leo

• Mobile scanning experience.
• Real-time 3D model projection.
• Inbuilt touch screen.
• Ability to stream a video to a second device using its wireless capabilities.
• Background and base removal.
• Long-lasting inbuilt battery.
• Scan-to-cloud capabilities.
• Point accuracy of up to 0.1mm, 3D resolution of up to 0.2mm, and data acquisition speeds of up to 35 million points per second.

How has Artec Leo impacted Weldco-Beales' product offering?

The Weldco-Beales team were previously using tape measures, string, cardboard templates, and photographs to analyse and model an area for a customer. Now, with the Artec Leo, the team can capture the same data in a matter of minutes when it previously would have taken days.

Before, manually measured data had to be manually entered into the SOLIDWORKS platform, a process that would have taken hours. This was before Weldco-Beales could even produce a 3D model. Now, through the automation of the new system, the process takes mere minutes. A huge improvement in speed for the Canadian manufacturers.

“Being able to work fast while still ensuring accuracy and quality has a huge impact,” Aceto said.

The Artec Leo eliminates the need for trial-and-error experimentation, and the system's geometry and texture-based data process algorithms make set-up targets redundant. Additionally, the scanner also picks up changes in a piece of equipment’s geometry, whether that be bends, breaks, or wear, during the reverse engineering process, which would have been missed in original CAD models.

With Weldco-Beales having three manufacturing facilities in different provinces in Canada, the Artec products allow greater flexibility as scans can be completed in one location before being shared via the Artec Cloud to a different facility.

While Artec prides itself on creating easy-to-use products, the Javelin team were on hand to provide the Canadian manufacturers with additional help and training. 

“When we saw a fit for an Artec 3D scanning system, we educated and guided the WBM team, from initial demos right through to ensuring they were confidently using the technology,” said Wayne Keller, Client Executive at Javelin Technologies.

Aceto agreed with Keller, saying, “As with any new technology you adopt, there’s a learning curve. Javelin has been awesome. Cory [Green] was dedicated to making sure we were all well-trained, even if it took a bit of extra time, and I can bounce questions off him anytime.”

Looking forward to the future, Weldo-Beales is considering acquiring the Artec Ray II, as well as two more Artec Leo systems.