Inspecting Medical Plastics with ShapeGrabber Ai3100 pages

Medical Injection Molded Plastics
Inspection with ShapeGrabber Ai310
Complex shapes are our specialty

Injection molded plastic provides the light weight and design flexibility required for parts used in medical applications.
From orthopaedic and prosthetic devices to laboratory equipment and medical tools, molded plastics can be
manufactured to very complex shapes that optimize weight and strength. These complex shapes make injection
molded plastic parts some of the most difficult to measure for control to dimensional specifications.

Benets to Medical Device Manufacturers
ShapeGrabber® 3D laser scanners are ideal to quickly and accurately inspect medical
devices by correctly measuring the complete shape. The scanners:
• Allow rigorous quality control measures to be applied to precision injection molded
plastics.
• Capture millions of data points in a few minutes which represent the true surface
geometry.
• Scans can be easily compared directly to 3D CAD models.
• Scan data provides accurate and timely feedback on prototypes, allowing faster and
better part design and process optimization.
With ShapeGrabber 3D scanners, it is no longer necessary to rely on a few sample points
collected with a caliper or a slow CMM. ShapeGrabber makes it possible to inspect the
whole part and still make rapid pass/fail decisions with confidence.

Application Examples
ShapeGrabber 3D
scanning systems are used
to inspect injectionmolded medical parts and
devices such as
• Orthopedic & prosthetic
devices
• Hospital equipment
• Laboratory equipment
• Surgical & medical tools

ShapeGrabber for Injection-Molded Plastic Components
ShapeGrabber 3D scanners are particularly valuable for use with
injection molded plastic parts because:
• They accurately measure complex shapes with compound curves.
• They can be used to effectively detect and measure warpage, twist,
bow and shrinkage, and to troubleshoot fit problems.
• They can scan parts of any size, material, and color.
• Scans containing millions of data points can be completed within
minutes.
• The visual nature of the results makes it possible to more quickly
troubleshoot the source of a problem.
• Parts do not have to be placed in an expensive fixture to be scanned,
leading to significant cost savings.
• Scan results are documented in automatically generated reports and
can be provided to customers as part of the quality assurance process.

Color map comparing the 3D scan of a plastic medical device
to its CAD model*
* Inspection results generated using Geomagic® software with ShapeGrabber scan data

ShapeGrabber scanners include a variety of automated, portable,
large and small options to accommodate different needs. Turn
the page to learn more about the Ai310 system and accompanying
inspection software.