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Rapid3D Restores Broken Windshield Strut at Reynolds Museum

Of the many applications we use our 3d scanners for one of our favourite is working on historically significant projects where parts and assemblies are no longer available and we are able to apply modern technology to help complete restoration projects. We have a number of these examples to draw from but we recently worked with the Reynolds Museum in Wetaskiwin Alberta on the restoration of a McLaughlin Model 24-45 Touring Car that the museum is putting together for an upcoming Feature Exhibition: "The McLaughlin Story" starting in May of 2017. For those who have never been to the Reynolds Museum, it is a must see for anyone that is interested in vintage automobiles, aircraft, farm and agricultural equipment as well as mining and untique machinery. Located in the city of Wetaskiwin it is a great place to spend the day with the family with many special events throughout the year.

The project began with a request from the museum conservators, the museum had a windshield strut from a McLaughlin Model 24-45 Touring Car that had been broken into 3 pieces and they only had one side, the other side piece was missing completely. The objective of the project was to create a set of windshield struts that the museum could use on the car that were an exact replica of the original but could be identified as a manufactured replacement part. The process we recommended was to 3D scan what remained of the windshield strut and create a proper 3D CAD model of the windshield strut from the three pieces then mirror the newly created CAD model to complete the pair. The final part of the process would be to 3d print a pair of windshield struts.




Once we received the three pieces from the museum we used our Creaform HandySCAN 700 to create 3D scans of each of the three pieces. The Creaform scanning technologies are industry leading 3D Scanning devices used for scanning applications where speed and precision matters. The scan time for each of the individual pieces was very fast but we had to scan each side of each of the pieces so we ended up with six individual scans to begin with. We then aligned and merged each of the scans into one final scan session. In the images the light blue coloured images are the scan data and the grey images are the CAD models created from the scan data.


Once we had all of the scan data in one session we began the process of creating a proper 3D CAD model from the scan data. We felt that to get the best result possible we would create the 3D CAD model for the scan data using Geomagic Design X. Geomagic Design X is the industry standard for accurate and fast, end to end scan to CAD modeling. We basically reverse engineered the winshield strut from the scan data, as you can see from the images the CAD model conforms perfectly to the scan data. This process uses the scan data as a template for 3D Modeling and our applications engineers can see how their CAD model is deviating from the scan data thus ensuring a very accurate result. From here it was just a matter of doing a simple mirror function to create the opposite side and then we were off to the printer.



Once the model was complete we took the 3D CAD file and exported a watertight STL file and used our 3D Systems 3500 HD Max to print the pair of struts. The build time was close to 24 hours but the result was very good.

For more information regarding the 3D Scanning products or services we offer don't hesitate to visit us a www.rapid3d.ca or give us a call at 587.352.0221.




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hunterdewand
27 ago 2023

Well in my case, the windshield of my rv has been broken badly and i can't think of doing repair. Also, i never heard about these 3D models earlier, i simply visit rv glass repair expert and ask them to replace the windshield.

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