Not content with high-speed multicolor 3D printing, laser cutters, and shoes, Creality also lets loose in its 10th anniversary announcement this week with a pair of new 3D scanners.
Revealed some couple of hours into the company’s nearly three-and-a-half-hour-long showcase, the two new devices are a part of Creality’s strategy to do for 3D scanning, what it could be said it did for desktop 3D printing. (Read: release lots of decent-enough competitively-priced products.)
Called the CR-Scan Otter, and CR-Scan Raptor, the new devices do mark a sophistication over the company’s relatively simple (but decent) scanning lineup thus far.
The CR-Scan Otter is a small-to-mid-scale near-infrared (NIR) scanner. It weighs 390 g and will launch at $959. Where its predecessor, the CR-Scan Ferret, could “run on the land, the CR-Scan Otter can both run and swim;” a poetic nod to the scanner’s increased versatility. The presentation also notes that a strength of the Ferret was its tracking ability and performance with darker objects (something we largely agree with after testing); both carry forward to the Otter.
The specs for the CR-Scan Otter list up to “0.02 mm accuracy”, “24-bit color” capture, with a scan object size from 10 mm³ to 2,000 mm³, and up to 20 frames per second capture. Real-world usage will push the accuracy around, mind. The minimum and maximum scan sizes are the real takeaways from the Otter’s feature set, with dual stereo lenses letting it push far beyond what the Scan Ferret could handle in near-distance and far-distance scanning. The Otter also offers some hand-holding quality-of-life improvements, including color LED lighting to indicate tracking and distance quality from the scanned object and physical buttons for direct control of operations.
Creality’s presentation points out the scanner’s anti-shake performance, with the tracker – the software stitching together the data as captured – seemingly unaffected by jerky hand motions when scanning. Interestingly the company also claims the Otter can perform well under direct sunlight – conditions we know infrared-based scanners typically struggle with.
Alongside the Otter, Creality revealed the CR-Scan Raptor – a blue laser and NIR scanner that the company claims offers “metrology-grade accuracy.” It marks a new technological fork for the company’s scanning devices in what it says is the world’s first blue laser and NIR combo scanner. Weighing a dainty 372 g, the Raptor will launch with a price tag of $1,599.
Like the Otter, the Raptor claims an accuracy of up to 0.02 mm and a similar scan object size of 5 mm to 2,000 mm. It appears the software and inherent abilities of the Raptor line up with the Otter, too, with both scanners compatible with the company’s Creality Scan software (which will be refreshed soon to accommodate the new hardware) and boasting “anti-shake” tracking.
On the hardware itself, the CR-Scan Raptor features LEDs for visual indication of the tracking and distance from the scanned object, plus physical buttons for control. The blue laser component of the scanner projects 7 lines into a slim-sounding 270 mm x 170 mm window for the Raptor to capture from, with the result that “the point distance is lower,” ostensibly giving better detail than the Otter. Clever girl.
The blue laser mode relies on makers for tracking only, whereas the infrared mode can use object geometry and feature tracking in addition to marker tracking. The blue laser mode also gives the Raptor a speed boost, capturing at up to 60 frames per second.
Though not explicitly stated in the presentation, the sizzle reels for each scanner show both tethered to a computer. So, while handheld, larger projects will require you to walk about with a laptop like a bar tray.
The CR-Scan Otter and CR-Scan Raptor are available now in limited quantity for the initial batch. It appears the first orders will begin shipping in the second half of April.
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License: The text of "Creality Also Announced a ‘Metrology Grade’ 3D Scanner This Week" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.