Editor's Pick: Noncontact 3D Digitizer from Konica Minolta Offers Industry Accuracy

By Anthony J. Lockwood

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

People seem to love their VIVID 9i and VIVID 910 scanners/digitizers from Konica Minolta. They're rugged, reliable, and — tipping the scale at more than 30 lbs. — relatively portable. Konica Minolta recently announced its new noncontact scanner/digitizer — the RANGE7. People are going to love this baby too: It’s fast, accurate, and at — oh, let’s round it up, 15 lbs. — really portable.

The RANGE7 is designed for onsite use in industrial inspection, manufacturing, and quality control settings, and it’s designed for efficiency — it can take a scan in 2 seconds and can be calibrated by users on its stand. It’s also designed for flexibility — it has an interchangeable lens and, when mounted on an optional stand, can be easily moved about. It comes with Windows software (64-bit supported) to help you perform registration of measured data, data integration, export STL files, and so on.

Three things are really cool about the RANGE7. First, its new 1.31-megapixel (1280 × 1024) CMOS sensor can detect finely detailed shapes with an accuracy of ±40 microns at a distance of 17.75 to 30.5 inches (450mm to 800mm). Second, it has a 3D preview function. This lets you check for and correct scan area depth, dead angles, scan problems due to surface conditions, and so forth before you realize that you're making a mess of your scan. Finally, the RANGE7’s next generation sensing technologies can scan in most objects with glossy, metallic surfaces without making you prep the surface.

The RANGE7 comes from a long line of noncontact 3D scanners/digitizers from Konica Minolta, and it marks the first in the company’s new series. Considering how much people rely upon their older Konica Minolta 3D scanners/digitizers, the RANGE7 and its next generation technology will surely continue that tradition.

You can learn a lot more about the RANGE7 from today’s Pick of the Week write-up, while you hit the links it provides, check out its specs, and see what a next generation scanner/digitizer is all about.

Plus, Konica Minolta will be showing off the RANGE7 next week at Westec as well as at Rapid Prototyping (RAPID) in May, and at Atlantic Design in June (you can find links to these three shows at the end of today's Pick of the Week write-up).

Thanks, Pal. — Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at large, Desktop Engineering magazine