Golden scans: portable 3D scanners transform hydro power station modernisation

Portable, accurate and accessible 3D scanners are transforming work across engineering.

At the TCT Show in September, Joseph Flaig spoke to Nick Godfrey from Central Scanning, which is using 3D scanners to help modernise a hydroelectric power station in a quicker and easier way than ever before. 

Pipe dream

“The company approached us because they wanted to scan quite a big part of a power station, looking to put new compressors into this area,” said Godfrey. “Historically they’ve done it with tape measures and photographs, trying to measure it. They had a problem a few years ago where they did all that, they brought the compressors in from overseas and they couldn’t fit them in because they missed some pipe runs.”

Close-up

“We went in and scanned the complete area using the Artec 3D Ray. That’s got 110m range, so that did all the large-volume scan to sub-millimetre accuracy. Afterwards we went with the Artec 3D Leo and did all the close-up scanning.” 

Guaranteed fit

“Now they’ve got a 3D model of all the important pipe runs, where all the floor levels are and everything critical. That’s been sent overseas and the people making the compressor are using that to design around the aperture and all the pipework, so when they ship the compressor over they’re guaranteed it’s going to fit.”

High demand

“Those kinds of buildings were built a long time ago. Over the years they’ve had modifications done, extra pipes and power cables have been put in. That’s really why a lot of people are coming and asking us to do scans.”

Power provided

“The Ray is a very compact unit so we can turn up and scan directly into our software. We don’t need anything else; it’s got batteries in-built and an app for remote control. When you’re doing this kind of job often the issue is getting power to where you need to work. Combined with the Leo, which again has got a complete in-built computer and processor, it is a really good package for environments where getting electricity is very difficult.”

Simple approach

“It’s made it a lot simpler. In the past we’ve used different scanners and we’ve had to bring them into third-party software and align all that data together. Now we can do that all in one. There’s also no need to put in targets. It’s quicker than traditional measuring, and line drawings don’t give you like-for-like detail.”