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Founded in 1994, Spania GTA has become a major player in motorsport in Spain and Europe, designing cars that have participated in prestigious championships, such as the European F3 Open, the Superleague Formula and the International Open GT.
The company has also made it its mission to build a limited-edition super sports car, the Spania GTA Spano, with unparalleled handling, advanced technology and innovative aesthetics. Only 99 models of this super sports car will be built to order and several world patents have already been awarded to Spania GTA.
The challenges of 3D measurement in building a high-performance super-car
For several years, Spania GTA used hand tools, such as calipers, to acquire measurements of the components of its super sports car. In addition, the company had to rely on CAD information provided by third-party parts suppliers for the vehicle's complete 3D designs. Often, it was difficult to obtain the CAD files and confirm that the parts received were in accordance with the original specifications.
The problems arose on several levels. First, the R&D teams had difficulty verifying the dimensions of the large composite parts for the chassis, at the time of receipt; any undetectable errors ended up bogged down development and increased unexpected costs.
In addition, the design team often struggled to integrate components, without any 3D information, into the vehicle's CAD model, which slowed down the design process and increased the margin of 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 of more modern and efficient technologies and approaches to perform 3D measurements on the Spano GTA. As a company specialized 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 Creaform's portable 3D measurement solutions: the MetraSCAN 3D optical CMM and the 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 as well as for components with varying degrees of complexity and surface finish.
Thanks to their portability and robustness, the MetraSCAN 3D and HandySCAN 3D were able to digitize the parts and sub-assemblies of the Spania GTA Spano in different environments, whether indoors or outdoors, giving 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 vendors upon receipt to complete the critical CAD models they needed.
Specific applications tested with MetraSCAN 3D and HandySCAN 3D
In collaboration with Nutai, Spania GTA conducted additional extensive testing for various inspection needs, including:
- Dimensional control of the central and rear subframe
- Reverse engineering of the engine to obtain a CAD model
- Dimensional control of small sub-parts located near the car's wheels
- The general digitization of the entire Spano GTA to confirm that Creaform's portable optical CMM could scan very large objects with sophisticated geometries and highly reflective surfaces
- Identification of lower-than-standard tolerances and dimensional errors during prototype construction
Spania GTA was also impressed by the simplicity of the solutions, which allowed users of different skill levels to carry out the scanning processes without the help of an experienced metrologist.
Sports car pioneers are eager to leverage the performance of MetraSCAN 3D and HandySCAN 3D to accelerate their development cycles and design future vehicles – with unlimited possibilities!
