Foam Design Inc. of Lexington, Kentucky, builds a wide range of foam parts, including inserts for headliners used to protect against injuries in the event of a collision. Inspecting these components with a CMM was a tedious and error-prone process because of the difficulty involved in making contact with the part while not pressing down the soft material. A customer gave Steve Scrivner, quality manager for Foam Design, the idea of improving the speed and accuracy of the inspection process with a laser scanner. “The laser scanner has reduced the amount of time needed to lay out a first article from about an hour to under 20 minutes,” Scrivner said. “Just as important, the accuracy of the measurements has been substantially improved because this noncontact measurement method eliminates the danger of depressing the part surface.”

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