Central Scanning at work
Central Scanning at work
SatNavs have this habit of sending you on wild goose chases, off down country lanes that lead to nowhere until your automobile ends up in a ditch, without a mobile phone signal as the night draws in. As my TCT colleague and I turned off the M5 just south of Birmingham in search of the cutting edge 3D technology company Central Scanning, the roads began to narrow and the sheep count increased this started to feel like one of those navigational nightmares.
Just as hope faded, through the trees and tractors appeared an industrial site with the type of premises you often find British high tech companies lurking. Inside one of these lock ups was one of Europe’s leading 3D digitisation and verification firms and its ever-increasing team, Central Scanning.
Central Scanning began trading in 2006 and has grown from Director Nick Godfrey’s one-man-band to a team expected to reach double figures before the end of this year. Having worked in the automotive seating industry for the best part of a decade Nick spotted a gap in the market for a reverse engineering company in the UK and hasn’t looked back since.
“We pride ourselves on a good, honest, secure service.” Explained Godfrey. “Of our top ten customers we’ve had half of them since inception, they keep coming back. That level of service we offer is also reflected in the fact that 60% of new customers come through referrals.”
Central Scanning were the first resellers of the highly thought of Artec range of 3D scanners in the UK, they also sell hardware from Steinbichler and Surphaser as well as Geomagic software. The reason that they’re such a trusted reseller of these products is because they themselves have become expert users as demonstrated by the breadth of use cases Nick had on display.
As well as work in expected sectors all done to an incredible standard with such respect for client confidentiality we weren’t even allowed a peak into one of their rooms, Central Scanning’s reputation is such that they’re often called into sectors you’d never usually expect to require the services of 3D scanning…
Digitising water
Westfield digital water fountain
Westfield digital water fountain
Renowned installation artists Jason Bruges Studio were commissioned to design a new public artwork for the Westfield development in East London, the studio wanted to create a digital water feature that “captures the essence of water both visually and acoustically”.
In order to replicate water’s reaction to wind and light on the 12 metres tall feature’s 7,000 LCD screens they needed to examine an actual water feature in their studio. Central Scanning were drafted in to 3D scan liquid’s responses to various effects.
The team went down to London armed with 4 Artec 3D Scanners and some determination to get the job done. By mixing the water with white paint Central Scanning were able to capture and generate a mass of data, which was then used by Jason Bruges Studio in order to create the digital fountain.
Reducing the waste of money in Nuclear waste
Sellafield
Lead Mechanical Engineer, Eduard Bordas and the container lid
The lid was reverse engineered by Central Scanning
In 2013 a Public Accounts Committee report criticised the amount of money the decommissioning of the Sellafield was costing it stated that the private consortium managing the nuclear site had failed to reduce costs and delays. After the report Sellafield had to find ways to cut costs at the same time as keeping up with the rigorous health and safety standards demanded when dealing with nuclear waste.
During one project to ship radioactive waste to the Waste Encapsulation Plant engineers decided to modify an old 40-tonne flask that required a new lid. The usual cost for a metrology rig alone was £25,000, Central Scanning were drafted in to see if they could accurately 3D scan the original lid in order to underpin the new design.
On this project alone Central Scanning’s 3D scanning expertise saved Sellafield (and the UK Taxpayer) over £20,000. The project was such a success that Sellafield are, with the help of Central Scanning, implementing 3D Scanning and Printing technologies plant wide with potential savings thought to be in the hundreds of thousands bracket.
