Laser scanners are used, depending on application, for example as manually controlled barcode scanners or as fixed units. With their help you can scan surfaces with pixels or barcodes and shapes. SmartRay scan systems can even read encodings in Braille. You can also perform 3D scanning and distance measurements with a laser scanner. The main principle is the emission of a laser ray produced in the device and the recording of reflections. The data recorded in this way are sent to the computer where they can be processed. Laser scanners have multiple applications in everyday life. Many sectors of the economy, from logistics to architecture, from commodities management to building engineering are inconceivable today without the use of laser scanners. Our SmartRay laser scanners are used especially in automated processes for material inspection and quality assurance
The core element of a laser scanner is the mirror wheel. It is made of rotating polygons with several mirrors. The scanned object is exposed to the laser beam through the rotation of the mirror wheel. The data are recorded by the laser scanner by means of the light reflections in the object. The signal is processed and transmitted through the polygon mirror wheel. When you need to record objects three-dimensionally and perform distance measurement, like with the SmartRay 3D scanners, the time relation between the laser beam sent and the one that is reflected plays an important role. This works by means of an infra-red light emitting diode. It emits short light impulses via the rotating mirror, with a pulse duration of several nanoseconds. The “Timer” measures the time span of the light impulse falling onto the object and the one of the reflected light impulse.