Roller Coasters Are Safer With 3D Laser Scanning

November 4, 2018

3D Laser scanning making us bold to ride

Hang on to your hat, keys, wallet, and whatever else is going to fly out of your pocket when you strap yourself into a roller coaster seat. I’m not sure why, but for some reason we all love to climb into these things. We love to get jostled around and dropped over inclines making us feel like we are about to lose our lunch. It must be a sign of the times. My dad took us to Disneyland when I was a kid. How much he paid for all of our tickets I can’t recall, but I saw the look on his face.  I could tell that those tickets were not cheap. There were long lines to stand in just to get on one of those rides. We had to pay all that money to stand in line for hours. All of that just for the chance to feel like “We’re all gonna die!!!!” Little did we know that the reason we had courage to do that was because of 3D laser scanning services and 3D printing service.

They do a good job

What all that tells me is that we really do have a lot of confidence in the engineers who put those rides together. If in fact we really did think we were going to get killed, I am sure that we would never go near that place. Thankfully, though, they are quite safe. That is because engineers are doing the job to make they are safe. If they didn’t, amusement parks would go out of business real fast. Today engineers turn to high-tech means to monitor roller-coasters safety. They do it by using digital models to predict the wear and damage that occurs over time. This is not too difficult for newer rides because they generally have some type of digital model. This makes it easy to analyze for problems through means of software. But when it comes to older rides, there is often no computer model to look at. Therefore, the engineers must turn to 3D laser scanning services to help.

Not an easy task for 3D laser scanning

3D laser scanning services do the work by finding the basic dimensions of the roller coaster. This not an easy task. There are many factors that make collecting measurement data for a 3D model difficult. Since high precision is needed to get correct data, many factors come into play when scanning. They must consider things like wind factor and height off of the ground. Both can influence data collection. So these factors must be dealt with using quality scanners that can do the job. Once data for a point cloud is collected, engineers can use software to reconstruct the rollercoaster in digital form. The digitized model allows them to find important information, such as where the main stress points are and such.

The time and effort needed to perform such a task is a bit rigorous, but if safety is the top concern, then it must be done. It is good to know that 3D laser scanning services and all of the other gauges at work can monitor the safety of the rides we enjoy. Fortunately, most of the stress and wear on these rides is far less that what would be considered a safety concern. So the next time you stand in line at Disneyland for a ride down Space Mountain or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, remember that 3D laser scanning services has your back.

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