Environmental and Surface Considerations for the Laser Scanner LS
As the FARO Laser Scanner LS is an optical meassurement tool that takes reflectorless meassurements, the scan quality is depending on the environmental circumstances.
There are some easy to remember guidelines to provide good scanning results:
1) Black surfaces could be an issue
-> Can not be solved. If very dark surfaces have to be scanned you could try to apply dust spray (like the so-called develloper spray for fissure detection in metals) to create some relfectance.
-> As the LS works with infra-red laser light it is not necessarily the case that "black" to the human eye is equivalent to "black" for the scanner. As the behavior of certain surfaces in the infra-red spectrum is hard to predict, it is worth trying it.
2) Shiny surfaces could be an issue
-> According to our experiences, this affects normally not too many objects. If it occurs and you have more than one scan, you can reach good results in Geomagic because it tries to use the best points if the same surfaces have been captured from different positions.
(hint: a very good surface for scanning cars is the corrosion protection paint - matte and bright).
-> Also shiny surfaces might be prepared with dust spray (like the so-called develloper spray for fissure detection in metals).
3) Bright sunshine could be an issue
-> In most cases when you are scanning out doors, you are not interested in the sky. This means you can put an umbrella or anything that covers the scanner from the sun on top of the scanner. The most simple solution could be to mount one of the little pieces of foam (from the transport case) above the mirror.
-> If ever possible, try to have the object you want to scan not in the same direction from the scanner as the sun (this means, the sun should be "behind" the scanner). This helps at least a little bit to reduce the sun´s influence.
4) Movement - Scanner and target objects must both be stationary.
Keywords: Faro Laser Scanner LS, environment, conditions, condition, recommended, tips, ls, laser scanner, ls tips