Founded in 1994, Spania GTA has become a major player in motorsport in Spain and Europe, designing cars that have taken part in prestigious championships such as the European F3 Open, Superleague Formula and International Open GT.
The company has also set itself the mission of building a limited-edition supersports machine, the Spania GTA Spano, featuring unrivalled handling, advanced technology and innovative aesthetics. Only 99 models of this supersport will be built to order, and several worldwide patents have already been awarded to Spania GTA.
The challenges of 3D measurement in the construction of a high-performance supercar
For many years, Spania GTA used hand tools such as calipers to acquire measurements of components for its supersports car. In addition, the company had to rely on CAD information supplied by third-party parts suppliers for complete 3D designs of the vehicle. Often, it was difficult to obtain the CAD files and confirm that the parts received conformed to the original specifications.
Problems arose on several levels. Firstly, R&D teams had difficulty checking the dimensions of the large composite parts for the chassis at the time of acceptance; any undetectable errors ended up bogging down development and increasing unforeseen costs.
In addition, the design team often struggled to integrate components, without any 3D information, into the vehicle CAD model, slowing down the design process and increasing the margin for error.
Creaform's innovative 3D scanning solutions accelerate R&D lead times
Spania GTA called on Nuevas Técnicas de Automatización Industrial S.L. (Nutai) for recommendations on more modern and efficient technologies and approaches for performing 3D measurements on the Spano GTA. As a company specializing in advanced industrial automation, Nutai is a leading integrator of automated quality control solutions in Spain.
Nutai's experts immediately identified a perfect match with the Portable 3D measurement solutions from Creaform MetraSCAN 3D optical CMM and HandySCAN 3D scanner. The Spania GTA team began testing both systems to determine their performance in terms of data acquisition speed and accuracy, for large and small parts, and for components with varying degrees of complexity and surface finish.
Thanks to their portability and sturdiness, the MetraSCAN 3D and the HandySCAN 3D were able to digitize parts and sub-assemblies of the Spania GTA Spano in a variety of environments, both indoors and outdoors, offering designers and quality control specialists maximum versatility.
3D measurement solutions were also evaluated to determine their speed and accuracy for reverse engineering; operators were able to easily digitize parts from third-party suppliers, as soon as they were received, to complete the critical CAD models they needed.
Specific applications tested with MetraSCAN 3D and HandySCAN 3D
In collaboration with Nutai, Spania GTA carried out additional in-depth tests for various inspection requirements, including:
- Dimensional inspection of the central and rear subframe
- Reverse engineering the engine to obtain a CAD model
- Dimensional inspection of small sub-parts near the car's wheels
- General scanning of the entire Spano GTA to confirm that Creaform's portable optical CMM can scan very large objects with sophisticated geometries and highly reflective surfaces.
- Identifying sub-standard tolerances and dimensional errors during prototype construction
Spania GTA was also impressed by the simplicity of the solutions, which enabled users of different skill levels to carry out the scanning processes without the help of an experienced metrologist.
Sports car pioneers are eager to take advantage of the performance of MetraSCAN 3D and HandySCAN 3D to accelerate their development cycles and design future vehicles - with unlimited possibilities!