The Problem
The customer, is us government lab in a rural area, had a unique situation. Their facility was home to a very large door. Now this is not your average door. They could not tell us what the door was for, or anything about what was behind the door, but could imagine that it was built to withstand a nuclear blast. The point being, it was really heavy and made of metal that is about a foot thick. It had last been opened about 25 years ago, and it needed to be opened again. Things change over long periods of time like that, and so there was a concern that the ground may have shifted and the door, which was already positioned close to the ground, might get stuck if they tried to open it. The customer decided to call Arrival 3D for 3D laser scanning services to try and predict what would happen.
The Plan
The plan was to utilize 3D scanning services to scan the ground and the door and analyze whether there were any high spots that the customer would need to grind down in order to prevent the door from rubbing. apparently getting a multi-ton door unstuck is not desirable for them and worth some trouble to avoid.
What Arrival 3D did:
We traveled to their location bringing a Leica RTC360 scanner. This highly advanced scanner could scan not only the ground but capture a detailed scan of the door as well including it’s very large hinges. The scan was conducted very quickly, in a matter of minutes in fact. The laser scan point cloud from the scanner was converted to an STL mesh surface.
This mesh model created from the 3D scanning services was then utilized to generate a simulated plane representing the path of the swinging door. This simulated geometry could be compared against the actual ground surface, and any potential areas of concern were identified. This simulation was run a few more times using different degrees of sag, speculating that the door may tilt down a little at the free end. Color map images were generated that showed the potential high spots, along with a grid showing exactly where to grind.
How it helped:
Based on the 3D scanning service results, the customer has the peace of mind that there should not be any major problems when attempting to open the door. They also had a precise map showing where to grind the floor if they want to be extra cautious. In our opinion, 3D scanning services is great use of government money.
Do you have a nuclear blast door that might not open? Or maybe a regular door? Well, 3D laser scanning services can scan any door and in fact hundreds of doors in a day. Call us at 866-687-7784 for your nuclear blast door 3D scanning services today!
