The Challenge: New wastewater treatment equipment to be designed to replace aging old equipment in the existing facility. No drawings or dimensions are available of the existing facility, existing plumbing, and equipment which must be the basis of new equipment design. New equipment on the floor had to be accurately connected with the existing conveyor on the mezzanine. The wastewater treatment facility is located hundreds of miles away from customer engineering and manufacturing facility making it challenging to visit it frequently by engineering and manufacturing teams to take manual measurements.
The Solution: We at V3D Technologies, were able to provide a multi-pronged solution to the customer for this project using our extensive knowledge, experience, and multiple scanners. First, we created Matterport 3D WalkThru virtual tour of the facility using high resolution Pro2 infrared scanner & camera. This helped customer engineering team to view the facility virtually from all different corners and also take basic measurements as required. Customer saved considerable time and money by not having various team members travel to the same facility. Virtual tour also allowed the entire team to be virtually present at the facility together. Metatags were added to the virtual tour to help navigate the site and equipment quickly & easily.
Matterport 3D WalkThru Virtual Tour of Wastewater Treatment Facility
Matterport 3D WalkThru Virtual Tour of Wastewater Treatment Facility
Next, we scanned the entire facility using a LiDAR 3D scanner. 34 set-up scans were used to capture all equipment, structures, and plumbing in the facility. All 34 set-ups were then registered to form a bundle point cloud within millimeters of accuracy. The bundle point cloud was aligned to a meaningful coordinate system before it was transferred to a CAD system for 3D modeling.
Point Cloud Bundle of Wastewater Treatment Facility
Point Cloud Bundle of Wastewater Treatment Facility
Point Cloud Bundle of Wastewater Treatment Facility
Lastly, we created a CAD model of existing equipment and plumbing connecting the equipment. Now the engineering team could design new replacement equipment within the same space envelope as the existing equipment and ensure that the new equipment would connect accurately to the existing conveyor and plumbing.
CAD model of Wastewater Treatment Equipment, Structure and Plumbing to help design new equipment
CAD model of Wastewater Treatment Equipment, Structure and Plumbing to help design new equipment
High-resolution scanning was done in some areas using a certified metrology-grade Laser 3D scanner. Scan data was used to create CAD surfaces in reverse engineering software.
3D scan data of Wastewater Treatment equipment captured using Laser 3D scanner
CAD model of Wastewater Treatment equipment
Conclusion: Using different 3D scanners and software, V3D Technologies was able to provide the necessary data & dimensions to the client for designing new wastewater treatment equipment that would fit perfectly with the existing conveyors and plumbing. Hundreds of man-hours and costs were saved by using accurate & precise 3D data.