3D Scan Forum

I am a total newbie to SLS scanning and recently aquired the HP 3D SLS dual-camera scanner, turntable & arm. I set everything up connected to a laptop with Quadro 3800M display card. At the moment, I have set it up as a single camera setup. All seems to be working fine.

I am doing my first scans with the scanner and learning a lot. But I also currently have a hot project where I need to get some clean 3D scans of a mechanical object. After reading and learning, it appears that this object surface is very hard to get a good scan. The surface is smooth and the outside is gloss black. The inside is bare brushed metal.

I have powdered the surface of the object but because of the underlying gloss black surface, there are still some shiny areas when scanning. This seems to result in holes in an individual scan. (I am guessing that if I were to paint the object with a flat gray primer color, I would get much better scans. But at this point, I can't paint the object).

The alignment of the scans seems pretty good to me overall, but if I zoom into certain areas, I can see that it's not perfect. Here are the scans:
Here is the fused mesh:
The object's outer surface is very smooth, but the fused mesh has noise on the surface that looks like it's made of cast iron. The area with the heavy rough surface is the region where the scans are slightly above one another.

Does anyone have any tips on what to try to get a smoother surface for this object or does the gloss black color make this the best I can get?

Thanks for any tips!!

Mike

Use developer spray to get a uniform white finish to cover the shiny metal and black surfaces on the part, then try rescanning.
You can wash the part later to get rid of the developer.(will be easily cleaned)
Show us the result after you tried it.

Thanks very much for this tip!

I have ordered some spray and will give it a try. (But it will not be delivered here for some time).

In the meantime, I will continue to try to improve my scans!

Thanks again.

Mike

You can give some spray foot powder a try in the wait for the other spray. I use it quite often instead.

Thanks for this tip! I will give this a try as well (hadn't considered that).

I assume the spray foot powder cleans off easily?

Thanks again.

The other options are spray dry shampoo and or spray in temporary hair color (grey or white). both wash off with water. The spot developer is the best but it is borne by an isopropyl alcohol base that may react with whatever you are spraying it on. I also like spray chalk from Montana Cans. its good for larger items.

Thanks very much for these tips!

Spray Shampoo? I didn't even know there was such a thing. I will look into these.

I feel my most basic problem is the surface of this object. If I can get it coated better my scans should improve.

Thanks again.