FARO Acquires Exclusive License from DPI

By DE Editors

A Dimensional Photonics 3D digital shape scanning system.

FARO Technologies, Inc. (Lake Mary, FL), a developer of portable computer-aided measurement hardware and software, has acquired an exclusive license from Dimensional Photonics International, Inc. (Wilmington, MA), a leading provider of high-speed, high-accuracy digital shape scanners, for global rights to develop, manufacture, and sell the company’s technology and products. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

FARO Technologies expects the transaction to be mildly dilutive to earnings in 2008 and 2009. The license covers technology and products only (no personnel or facilities are involved) and includes rights to more than 20 existing and pending patents and to certain technology developed and patented by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. FARO Technologies will be the exclusive owner of global rights for a broad mix of industrial applications.

FARO Technologies will establish a new Technology Center of Excellence in the Boston area, close to Dimensional Photonics headquarters, to ensure successful technology transfer as well as to draw upon the vast technical talent available in the region. The new research and development team will fall under FARO’s current engineering organization headed by Jim West, senior vice president of engineering and chief technology officer.

Dimensional Photonics’ proprietary technology, accordion fringe interferometry (AFI), creates a 3D digital model of a physical object’s surface by immersing it in patterns of light, then recording how the light reflects. AFI, a non-contact technology, can achieve accuracy of 25 microns or better in a 500mm field of view.

AFI is also highly scalable technology, with inherent design flexibility between accuracy, speed, and field of view. It can perform 3D scans of objects ranging from nano-scale to several meters in size. AFI technology is complementary to FARO Technologies’ existing non-contact offerings: the FARO Laser Scanner LS is capable of significantly larger volume, but with lower accuracy; the FARO ScanArm is more portable than Dimensional Photonics’ existing product, but is less accurate.

With approximately 17,000 installations and 7,600 customers globally, FARO Technologies designs, develops, and markets portable, computerized measurement devices and software used to create digital models—or to perform evaluations against an existing model—for anything requiring highly detailed 3D measurements, including part and assembly inspection, factory planning and asset documentation, as well as specialized applications ranging from surveying and recreating accident sites and crime scenes to digitally preserving historical sites. FARO Technologies is ISO-9001 certified and ISO-17025 laboratory registered.

In addition to producing advanced 3D scanners for industrial applications, Dimensional Photonics is currently engaged in the development of an intra-oral 3D scanner. DPI is the licensee to a portfolio of patents from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has also established its own proprietary portfolio of intellectual property.

For details, visit Faro.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company’s website.