The new Laser Scanner LS 420 has a range of 20 meters. Like its long-range predecessors offering 35-meter and 70-meter ranges, the LS 420 is a high-speed, phase-shift based scanning device with +/-3mm accuracy in averaging mode.
“The Scanner is more accurate than most competitors, and up to 100 times faster than time of flight scanners,” Freeland said, “The combination of the 420’s capabilities and low price make the FARO Laser Scanner LS the most cost-effective device in its segment.” The LS empowers users to digitize massive spaces into 3-D, action-ready data. A user mounts the unit to a tripod where it can then scan in a 360-degree swing, with a vertical sweep of 320 degrees, capturing a data cloud with an average of 28-million pixels per scan in about 4.5 minutes. The laser generates images in which minute details are sharp even at maximum range.

“One user who scanned an entire business jet reported that details as fine as rivets and tire lugs are easily distinguished in the scans,” FARO Director of LS Product Management Bernd Dietmar-Becker said. “Others use the instrument to check the trueness of tunnel walls during construction, or recreate crime scenes.”

The 3-D scans are rejoined in the FARO Scene V3 software to provide an accurate perspective of the entire room, building, object, etc. from any point of view, thus creating a virtual environment in which the engineers can move about at will, change directions and examine particular areas from multiple perspectives. Because the FARO LS brings in so much data at once, it compresses the time that users spend on-site collecting data.

Available for delivery in April 2006, the FARO Laser Scanner LS 420’s primary industries include: forensics/crime-scene and insurance investigation, process industries, architecture, automotive, power generation, tunnel and mining, civil engineering, heritage preservation, and large-product manufacturing.