We design, develop, manufacture, market and support software driven, three-dimensional
(3D) measurement, imaging and realization systems. We sell the majority of our
products through a direct sales force across a broad number of customers in
a range of manufacturing, industrial, architecture, surveying, building information
modeling, construction, public safety, cultural heritage and other applications.
Our FaroArm®, FARO Laser ScanArm®, FARO Gage, FARO Laser Tracker™,
FARO Cobalt Array 3D Imager, and their companion CAM2® software, provide
for Computer-Aided Design, or CAD, based inspection and/or factory-level statistical
process control and high-density surveying. Together, these products integrate
the measurement, quality inspection, and reverse engineering functions with
CAD software to improve productivity, enhance product quality and decrease rework
and scrap in the manufacturing process. Our FARO Focus3D and FARO Freestyle3D
laser scanners, and their companion SCENE, FARO public safety software and FARO
3D software, are utilized for a wide variety of 3D modeling, documentation and
high-density surveying applications, including in two of our key vertical markets
– Building Information Modeling (BIM)/Construction Information Management
(CIM) and public safety.
We believe four principal forces drive the need for our products and services:
1) the widespread use by manufacturers of CAD in product development, which
shortens product cycles; 2) the adoption by manufacturers of quality standards
such as Six Sigma and ISO-9001 (and its offshoot QS-9000), which stress the
measurement of every step in a manufacturing process to reduce or eliminate
defects; 3) the inability of traditional measurement devices to address many
manufacturing problems such as throughput, efficiency, and accuracy, especially
with respect to large components for products such as automobiles, aircraft,
heavy duty construction equipment and factory retrofits; and 4) the growing
demand to capture large volumes of three-dimensional data for modeling and analysis.
CAD improves the manufacturing process. The creation of physical products involves
the processes of design, engineering, production, and measurement and quality
inspection. These basic processes have been profoundly affected by the computer
hardware and software revolution that began in the 1980s. CAD software was developed
to automate the design process, providing manufacturers with computerized 3D
design capability and shortening the time between design changes. Today, most
manufacturers use some form of CAD software to create designs and engineering
specifications for new products and to quantify and modify designs and specifications
for existing products. While manufacturers previously designed their products
to remain in production for longer periods of time, current manufacturing practices
must accommodate more frequent product introductions and modifications, while
satisfying more stringent quality and safety standards. Assembly fixtures and
measurement tools must be linked to the CAD design to enable production to keep
up with the rate of design change.
Quality standards dictate measurement to reduce defects. QS-9000 is the name
given to the Quality System requirements of the automotive industry developed
by Chrysler, Ford, General Motors and major truck manufacturers. Companies registered
under QS-9000 are considered to have higher standards and better quality products.
Six Sigma is a set of quality standards that embodies the principles of total
quality management, focused on measuring results and reducing product or service
failure rates to 3.4 per million. All aspects of a Six Sigma company’s
infrastructure must be analyzed and, if necessary, restructured to increase
revenues and raise customer satisfaction levels. The all-encompassing nature
of these and other quality standards has resulted in manufacturers measuring
every aspect of their process, including stages of product assembly that may
never have been measured before, in part because of the lack of suitable measurement
equipment.
Traditional products do not measure up. A significant aspect of the manufacturing
process entails measurement and quality inspection. Historically, manufacturers
have measured and inspected products using hand-measurement tools such as scales,
calipers, micrometers and plumb lines for simple measuring tasks, test (or check)
fixtures for certain large manufactured products, and traditional (or fixed)
coordinate measurement machines, or CMM, for objects that require higher precision
measurement. However, the broader utility of each of these measurement methods
is limited.
Although hand-measurement tools are often appropriate for simple geometric measurements,
including hole diameters or length and width of a rectangular component, their
use for complex part measurements, such as the fender of a car, is limited.
Also, these devices do not allow for the measurements to be directly compared
electronically to the CAD model of the part. Test fixtures (customized fixed
tools used to make comparative measurements of complex production parts to “master
parts”) are relatively expensive and must be reworked or discarded each
time a dimensional change is made in the part being measured. In addition, these
manual measuring devices do not permit the manufacturer to electronically compare
the dimensions of an object with its CAD model.
Conventional CMMs are generally large, fixed-base machines that provide very
high levels of precision and provide a link to the CAD model of the object being
measured. However, fixed-base CMMs require that the object being measured be
brought to the CMM and fit within the CMM’s measurement grid. As manufactured
subassemblies increase in size and become integrated into even larger assemblies,
they become less transportable, thus diminishing the utility of a conventional
CMM. Consequently, manufacturers must continue to use hand-measurement tools,
or expensive customized test fixtures, to measure large or unconventionally
shaped objects. In addition, some parts or assemblies are not easily accessible
and cannot be measured using traditional devices.
The market demands three-dimensional data. Various factors contribute to market
demand for FARO products and services. Conventional surveying equipment is limited
to single-point measurements and does not have the capacity to capture and analyze
large volumes of three-dimensional data. As data requirements for construction,
civil engineering and public safety projects become more complex, single-point
measurement devices will become increasingly more difficult to utilize in those
applications.
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