Inspect Automotive Plastics with ShapeGrabber Ai8100 pages

Automotive Injection Molded Plastics
Inspection with ShapeGrabber Ai810

Complex shapes are our specialty

Injection molded plastic is used extensively in the automotive industry – under the hood, in vehicle interiors, and for exterior
body components. Molded plastic parts can be manufactured to very complex shapes that optimize weight and strength, and new
plastics allow injection molded components to be used where metal was once the only option. But, these complex shapes make
injection molded plastic parts some of the most difficult to measure for control to dimensional specifications.

Benets to Automotive Manufacturers
ShapeGrabber® 3D laser scanners are ideal to quickly and accurately inspect
automotive parts by correctly measuring the complete shape. The systems:
• 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.
On-line production no longer needs to rely on a few sample points collected
with a caliper or a slow CMM. It is possible to inspect the whole part and
still make rapid pass/fail decisions with confidence.

Select Customer List
These are just a few of the
automotive companies using
ShapeGrabber 3D scanners to
measure their complex parts:
• Cooper-Standard
• Inteva
• Ford
• General Motors
• Honda
• MPC
• Toyota

ShapeGrabber for Injection-Molded Plastic Components
ShapeGrabber systems 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.
• Scan results are documented in automatically generated reports and
can be provided to customers as part of the quality assurance process.
Color map comparing plastic radiator tank CAD le to
ShapeGrabber 3D Scan of the same part*
*Inspection results generated using Polyworks® software with ShapeGrabber scan data

ShapeGrabber® 3D scanners include a variety of automated,
portable, large and small options to accommodate different
needs. Turn the page to learn more about the Ai810 system and
accompanying inspection software.