Editor's Pick: Creaform Extends 3D Scanning Line to More Users

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

Yesterday, Creaform introduced the UNIscan, the latest edition in its Handyscan 3D series of handheld 3D laser scanners. Now, Creaform calls the UNIscan an entry-level model, but, looking at its specs, you might not think of it as entry level. What is entry level about the UNIscan is its price—very reasonable for this sort of high technology and the options it offers your business. The UNIscan's price is what could make you people in small and mid-sized outfits who know that you should be leveraging laser scanning get off the couch and make the investment .

Let me flop this fish on the table right now: The UNIscan is $28,900. Not exactly the kind of change you'd find in that couch. But not a heck of a lot when you consider that the UNIscan will open up entirely new revenue streams while simultaneously eliminating those money-wasting, time-eating processes that have had you snooping around laser scanning for years now.

What does that mean? UNIscan gives you options. Without the UNIscan, reverse engineering means you either send a part off to a third party and wait (and pay) or you try your hand at drawing an approximation in, say, Inventor, and fiddling and fussing with the model and prototypes until you've a fairly acceptable re-creation of the part. UNIscan, on the other hand, acquires up to 18,000 measures per second of that part and is accurate down to 80 micrometers.

New revenue streams? With UNIscan, you can offer your clients the reverse engineering, inspection, and other services that you once farmed out. Or you can get into new areas like archiving, multimedia, styling, and so forth. Or you can finally really streamline your development cycle, compress time to market, and eliminate extra expenses—all at the same time.

As I said, options. And that's what UNIscan signifies. UNIscan makes 3D laser scanning an affordable, viable option for companies that just couldn't afford the technology and justify the wait for ROI even when they knew laser scanning was something that they could put to good use.

The UNIscan packs a lot of performance into its 2.1 pounds. You can read more about it in today's Pick of the Week write-up. We've provided a couple of links to registration-free and very brief videos that are worth looking into.

Thanks, pal. -- Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood
Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering Magazine

Read today's Pick of the Week write-up.