ELEGOO is opening up another type of 3D technology.
The company, most well known for its resin and FFF 3D printers, has just announced the M1 Ultra, its very first 3D scanner. This device can capture an existing object and converts its shape into digital data, a 3D model.
It’s an obvious addition to ELEGOO’s product lineup. Many 3D printer operators eventually want to duplicate an existing item, or create something that fits around it. That usually means a buying a 3D scanner, and sometimes even requiring another software tool, too.
ELEGOO’s new M1 Ultra is a handheld, battery powered unit with a built-in three-inch touchscreen, WiFi and onboard processing. ELEGOO says the battery can operate for up to 90 minutes, while the internal processor handles data capture, compression and image processing. The screen displays the scan as it develops, so the operator can check the result without continually returning to a computer.
The scanner combines blue laser scanning with infrared structured light. ELEGOO has divided those technologies into five operating modes, each intended for a different scanning problem:
- 34-line blue laser: Fast capture of medium to large objects.
- Seven-line blue laser: Detailed scans of small to medium-sized parts.
- Single-line blue laser: Reaching into holes and recessed areas that are difficult to capture.
- Infrared structured light: Marker-free scanning of objects, faces and bodies.
- Marker-free blue laser: Capturing surfaces where applying tracking markers would be undesirable or impossible.
That’s quite a range of applications for one device, something unheard of until recently. If you are working with a mechanical part, you may need the detail obtained from the blue laser modes, while if capturing a person’s face or a larger organic shape, you’d use a different mode.
ELEGOO also claims accuracy as high as 0.02mm, describing the performance as “metrology-grade”. That’s an ambitious statement, but nevertheless this device could potentially approach that level. You must remember that accuracy on a small object isn’t the same as accuracy across a much larger object, since errors accumulate.
The device can also capture full color textures, which are useful for some scanning applications. For producing replacement mechanical parts, however, dimensional geometry capture is the most important factor.
The other important component is the ELEGOO SCAN software. It provides guided setup, tracking assistance and automated processing, and a way to transform the captured point cloud into an actual 3D model you could print. While the device’s onboard computer makes scanning portable, you still need a PC to process the captures afterwards.
ELEGOO launches the M1 Ultra today, at a price of US$1699, but there’s an early bird price of US$1599, a hundred bucks off. That’s a bit more pricey than some other alternatives, but it sounds like this device is quite powerful, especially with all the different modes.
I’m interested to see how smoothly ELEGOO can go from scanning an object to 3D printing it.
Via ELEGOO
