FARO Version 6 Scanner

About Laser Stripes

FARO scanners emit what appears to be a laser line that strikes a surface. The line is actually divided into thousands of distinct dots that are then interpreted as surface points at the FARO scanner.

Blue Laser

The version 6 scanner is the first scanner to emit a blue laser. The previous versions emit red lasers.

The Advantages of the Blue Laser Scanner

It has been reported that some of the FARO competition has reported that the blue laser technology is "a gimmick". This couldn't be further from the truth. It has very important advantages over previous scanners. Read about them here.

Advantage 1: Reduced Spectral Refraction

The v6 scanner takes advantage of the reduced refraction properties of blue laser versus red laser. Every pixel or point of laser on a surface has an inherent amount of spectral refraction that makes the point less precise because the edges of the point can become blurred to the scanners. The v6 blue laser has a less refracted dot (it is sharper) than previous red laser version dots - making precise detection by the camera better than before.

Here are some strong advantages of improved spectral refraction performance:

• Because the dots in the laser stripes have less refraction than previous scanners, they are more precise than any of the previous scanners.
  
  

• The v6 scanner can return twice as many points in a laser stripe than the previous v5 scanner. It can now return 2000 points per stripe along the full length of the stripe. The dots in the v6 scanner are 0.075 mm apart (0.003").
  
  

• It has proved to be superior to previous scanners for measuring materials that are black or highly reflective. It can use a new HDR (High Dynamic Range) scanner algorithm designed for use with this scanner to overcome high-contrasting surfaces.
  
  

• It can handle bright factory lighting where previous versions struggled to overcome interference from room lighting. It even overcomes sunlight coming in the bay doors of factories. None of the previous versions could handle nearby sunlight.
  
  

Advantage 2: Red Cross-hair Range Finder

• The v6 scanner includes a red cross-hair range finder that is aimed at the part surface in order to help the operator find the range more quickly during measuring. Previous scanner versions had no cross-hair range finder.
  
  

• The left-right line of the cross-hair also serves to help quickly center the scanner on a tube straight. Previous versions of scanners could allow users to aim high or low on the tube straights. Finding the center of the beam is much easier with the cross-hair.
  
  

Other Pages

• See VTube-LASER
• See FARO