Curtis Industries conducting a scan with the Artec Leo
As a long-standing company providing customisable goods, Curtis Industries has established itself as being able to provide solutions that fit its customers' requirements. Curtis Industries’ Design Engineering Manager, Steve Smith, states, “Our custom cabs are made to interface with vehicles as if they’re a natural extension built together from the very beginning. Every single weather seal, bracket, mounting hole, window, and door needs to be in exactly the right place with the right dimensions, without exception.”
He continues, “Because of this, our cabs provide operators with maximum comfort and protection from the elements for years of service. To make this happen, every single weather seal, bracket, mounting hole, window, and door needs to be in exactly the right place with the right dimensions, without exception.”
Not only does Curtis Industries place its own stringent deadlines, but smaller turn-around rates are also being demanded by the market. To meet these expectations, the custom cab enclosure makers are looking for ways to improve both products and workflows, with a keen interest in reverse engineering.
Curtis Industries’ engineers require precise measurements of a vehicle, which will be reverse-engineered, to produce a CAD prototype model from said measurements. At the time, the company was using tape measures, calipers, plumb bobs, and a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) a, to do this.
While the CMM arm was providing adequate measurements, it was suffering from slow operation speeds, heavy mounting plates, and limited reach. All of these elements were slowing down each job, with the device having to be repositioned at least four times throughout each session. This section of the development process was identified as the issue that needed rectifying.
About Curtis Industries
One of Curtis Industries' Curtis Cabs
First established in 1968, Curtis Industries has become an innovator in the design and manufacture of custom aftermarket cab enclosures for tractors, UTVs, golf carts, as well as snow and ice removal equipment, and so much more. The Massachusetts-based company is ISO 9001 certified with a global reach spanning the United States, Canada, Europe, and Asia. Curtis Industries’ goal is to “enhance our customers’ comfort and productivity every day.”
The Artec Leo in action
Smith quickly found that 3D scanning solutions could be the answer the company was looking for, and was told by Artec's Ambassador for Digitise Designs, Bo Helmrich, that the Artec Leo might bridge the gap. Helmrich went on to provide Smith and Curtis’ engineers with a demonstration of the Artec Leo in action, as it scanned a large tractor.
They saw that the scanner could acquire millions of data points with each sweep, without the need for cables or an additional laptop. Using the Leo’s built-in touch screen, the individuals from Curtis could see the scan of the vehicle occur in real-time, with all necessary features and geometry being captured.
Following the completion of the scan, Helmrich demonstrated how quick it was to export the scan data from Artec Studio Software into SOLIDWORKS via the Geomagic for SOLIDWORKS plugin. The surface scans were then turned into a CAD model by adding planes, cylinders, and other reference features.
“This is a massive leap forward in our design-to-build workflow,” said Smith. “We were amazed at how fast and painlessly Leo scanned everything, compared to what we were used to in the past with our CMM. Because we design our products around scanned vehicle data, for us this is a massive leap forward in our design-to-build workflow.”
After witnessing the demonstration, Curtis Industries decided to purchase an Artec Leo the very same day.
Key specs of the Artec Leo:
- Ability to stream a video to a second device using its wireless capabilities.
- Background and base removal.
- Inbuilt touch screen.
- Long-lasting inbuilt battery.
- Mobile scanning experience.
- 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.
- Real-time 3D model projection.
- Scan-to-cloud capabilities.
How did the Artec Leo fare against Curtis Industries' traditional CMM-centred approach?
After purchasing the Artec Leo, Smith and his team wanted to compare the timings between its traditional CMM approach and this new one with the Leo. To do this, the engineers timed every step of the process of scanning a vehicle for designing a new cab enclosure, both with and without the Leo present. After comparing the two sets of results, the Curtis team found three significant findings:
- Reduced scanning speed – What previously took the team 4-8 hours to measure only took under an hour with the Leo.
- More surface areas were scanned – While the previous measuring method only measured a handful of features, the Leo captured all the surfaces being scanned, recessed features, and irregular shapes of the vehicle.
- Significantly reduced scan processing – What previously took 2-3 days (per vehicle) or more with CMM scans, took under an hour with the Leo.
Additionally, the engineers from Curtis Industries found that the Artec Leo was easy to use, with a short learning curve. While also being easy to transport around, which contrasts with the former CMMs which required vehicles to be brought to them.
“With Leo, anytime we want, it’s a cinch to carry it over or drive it out to a vehicle, whenever the need arises,” said Smith.
Looking into the future, the Curtis Industries team, led by Smith, are hoping to focus the Leo on more applications throughout the company, including reverse engineering vehicle parts, tractor attachments, and so much more.