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Cutting Edge - Creaform Scanners help FI Innovations to be "right up there"

Since day dot, the team at FI Innovations says it has been on a mission to be “world-class through innovative thinking and manufacturing excellence.”

That sense of vision is what has led the company to its current point of success, where it often finds itself looking back at where we came from to where it is now with an “enormous sense of gratitude”.

From flooring to 3D printing and additive manufacturing, it’s fair to say there’s always something going on at its innovation hub in the deep South.
“When we first took over the family business nearly 10 years ago, we set out to be industry-leading in resin flooring and industrial coatings, fibreglass and rhino lining as FI innovations. Our passion has continued to be what’s driven us, and as a result, we’ve experienced some major expansion over the past few years,” says Derek Manson, advanced manufacturing manager for FI Additive.
HandySCAN BLACK Elite 3D Scanner
“Part of what makes what we do possible was our decision to add the Creaform HandyScan Black Elite 3D scanner to our collection of gadgets. We knew the potential of what a 3D scanner could do for us and our customers, so after evaluating all the various options on the market, it was obvious Creaform had the highest quality, best accuracy and best real-time scanning ability on the market.”

With a myriad of machines, including the Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) 3D printer, the Stereolithography (SLA) 3D printer, and the vapour smoothing PostPro3D by AMT, which is the first of its kind in Australasia, FI says it is constantly looking for revolutionary ways to manufacture superior end-use parts for the medical, aerospace, transport and marine industries, plus everything in between.

“We began by taking our Creaform HandyScan Black Elite 3D scanner to the team’s workshop and scanning the front end of the car, ensuring all mounting points were captured. We then scanned the surviving parts of the bumper and salvaged some reference geometries and cross-sections. The next step was combining the car scan and the bumper entities to create a whole new design. Also taken into consideration for this new design were some airflow improvements, an optimised brake ducting configuration and the complete integration of bumper and splitter.” says Manson.

When a race car had experienced significant damage to its bumper and splitter, the company tackled the project by using the Creaform 3D scanner. After sustaining extensive damage during a race, the composite team were tasked with repairing the now shattered component. After outlining the repair methodologies and discussing a few shortcomings of the current design, it was decided that it would be better to build a new one from scratch. This meant that the design could be optimised and a mould could be created to future proof the team from future damage.

One of the advantages of using the Creaform HandyScan Black Elite 3D Scanner was that FI Innovations could recreate the ducts in the bumper to make them detachable. As a result, if the bumper was damaged but the ducts remained intact, they would only have to print a new bumper on its own.

Without the Creaform HandyScan Black Elite 3D Scanner, this job would quite literally have been impossible considering the mould didn’t exist. Because of this technology, FI Innovations’ customer was able to have a custom part made that was significantly better than the original and would future proof their access to the same part if necessary.

“Because the original bumper didn’t quite fit the car frame right, we also had to manipulate it slightly in order for it to slot in smoothly. When our customer fitted the part to their vehicle, it was bang on and they couldn’t have been more stoked.””

HandySCAN BLACK Elite Car Part Inspection
This kind of technology, along with the rest of what they have onboard, is what they say sets FI Innovations apart from the rest and positions it ahead of the pack.

“Rather than just focusing on prototyping with 3D printing, we’re taking additive manufacturing to the next level. What also gives us a leg up is the fact that everything we do is done in-house. We don’t need to use external sources for assistance with project processes and in turn, there’s the added benefit of IP sensitivity. As for the scanning itself, it’s an integral part of our QA processes in the sense that we can scan parts, reprint them and compare them to the original parts – a luxury many in the industry don’t have.“

And as for what’s next, Manson says the company is always striving to stay on the cutting edge and as new developments make their way into the market, “We’ll be right up there with them.”  

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