3D Laser Scanning Helps Avert Clashes in a Power Plants New Installation

A coal-fired power plant in Wyoming was producing 2,110 megawatts of electricity per hour from four 500-foot-high generating units that serve more than a million people throughout the region. Because of its importance to the community, the plant could not afford the slightest setback in the installation of its new emission control system, which was required to comply with EPA regulations.

钢的僵局占据了空间的主导地位，并且排放系统的许多关键特征必须位于发电厂的钢支撑结构上方。受到挑战的工程公司的项目经理约瑟夫·吉德布（Joseph Gidcumb）知道，可能与现有结构发生冲突。为了预先计划完美的安装，制造系统，并阻止潜在的与当前结构的冲突，需要以高度的精度来捕获该工厂的原样条件。手动测量安装区域会很耗时，几乎不可能避免不准确的情况，以使工程团队暴露于该领域的许多问题。为了减轻设备功能的问题，团队将不得不留下靠垫的公差，并准备在安装系统时解决问题。但是，这些更改可能会延迟安装，并将标签运行数十万美元。使事情复杂化，工程公司将不得不租用电梯才能进入一些更高的位置。当然，这将引入安全问题，并促使需要进行额外的职业安全与健康管理（OSHA）培训。

为什么激光扫描是正确的for the Job
激光扫描是工程公司的新手，因此Gidcumb和他的团队需要保证，收集的数据将是准确的，并提供必要的信息。

Truepoint Laser Scanning总裁Ryan Hacker说：“工厂里只有一吨钢，基本上必须将针头穿过150英尺高的结构。”“他们将在那里插入新的支持结构。除了使用激光扫描外，他们还能真正知道安装不会与任何东西发生冲突？”

激光扫描是工程公司的新手，因此Gidcumb和他的团队需要保证，收集的数据将是准确的，并提供必要的信息。Because the virtual design group had not worked with point clouds before, they did not know what the data would look like, or exactly how they would use it. "Any engineering design firm gets pitched so many different new things and technologies that can do all this fabulous stuff," says Hacker. "They're understandably very skeptical about something they haven't used before."

Associates at TruePoint Laser Scanning were confident that the point clouds created through laser scanning would fit seamlessly into the engineering firm's workflow and provide all the details they needed. In addition, laser scanning would save time and money. Based on TruePoint's conviction that laser scanning was the best solution and that the data collection would cost less, Gidcumb and his company took a leap of faith and put laser scanning to the test.

From Scans and Point Clouds to Clash Detection
在短短三天,两个技术人员完成了documentation, which included 48 scans.

The TruePoint Laser Scanning team used its Leica ScanStation C10 laser scanner for collecting data because its long-range capabilities, up to 300 meters, accommodated the height and distances required. In addition, they were confident the laser scanner would provide clean data and a smooth workflow. They set up targets that would stay in place as the technicians moved around the site, serving as landmarks for tying the final data to a coordinate system of the plant. Targets, which included an assortment of different types such as tripods, and magnetic bases that cling to railings or pipes, make it easier to register and stitch together the point cloud data into a comprehensive dataset. During the scanning process, technicians scanned each location, took photographs of the same scenes with the laser scanner, and also captured and labeled each of the targets.

在短短三天,两个技术人员完成了documentation, which included 48 scans. Hacker estimates that completing the same assignment using traditional measuring devices would have taken six people about three weeks, with far less data captured in the process. He notes that the cost savings add up quickly when considering the salaries, airfares, hotel expenses, and meals for the additional time and number of people who would have been required.

TruePoint Laser Scanning imported the data into Leica Cyclone software, registered the point clouds, and provided the engineers with files in Autodesk format (PCGs) for use in their modeling software. In addition, TruePoint gave the engineering firm Leica TruViews, dimensional photographs overlaid on top of the point cloud data, which can be viewed in Leica Geosystems' free TruView panoramic viewer to provide a perspective view of the site. The Leica TruViews could be spun around to allow the engineers to look at the point clouds from different angles, giving them a better idea of how areas of the plant were related to each other than if they'd been looking at static pictures. They could also zoom in and out on specific plant features to gather data to answer detailed questions.

Since the engineering firm was based in a different state, Leica TruViews helped to familiarize them with the scan area and allowed them to return to the plant virtually as needed without traveling physically to the site. These virtual visits enabled them to provide a much faster turnaround on deliverables for the plant. In fact, within three days of receiving the point cloud data, the engineers had already found some major clashes. "We have discovered a few clashes with our structural steel which may not have ever been caught [otherwise]," says Gidcumb, "so I feel the service has already paid for itself."