EinScan H Used for Restoration and Replication

18th Oct 2021

3D scanning of the hull of the Stapley ski race boat with the EinScan H 3D scanner.

As the EinScan H is a very efficient, user friendly and at the same time accessible device, it is the perfect tool for this boat-building business. Getting started 3D scanning with the EinScan H is smooth and easy in technically demanding environments. It is light and flexible, so even getting it set up in a workshop and maneuvering it around huge objects for surface capturing is a simple task.

EinScan H scanning the bottom of the Stapley hull — Scanning the full hull of the Stapley ski race boat in the workshop.

3D scanning with the EinScan H creates an authentic digital image of the boat hull in the EXScan software. The boat was scanned on a medium detail level to an accuracy of 1mm.

Boat hull in ExScan software — IStapley ski race boat full hull in the EXScan software.

Hull with color features in EXScan software — Boat hull with original color features in EXScan software

Reverse Engineering in Fusion 360
Fusion 360 was used to reverse engineer the scanning data to create mould sets. This information, makes it possible to roughly calculate the costs of replicating the Stapley ski race boat with modern construction technologies and materials.

Stations in Fusion 360 — ICreating equally spaced cross-sections in Fusion 360.

Placement of some equally spaced cross sections or “stations” in order to create the new hull. Combined with a cross-section of the keel, these are used to loft new skins for the boat.

Drawing in Fusion 360 — Sketch of the new hull. Rough drawing of the new hull, deck and transom components. At this point, the hull isn’t faired but the shape is close enough to be able to obtain material quantities for producing a new boat.

Mould layout in Fusion 360 — Drawing the layout for a mould. Drawing of an approximate layout of the mould. The original boats contain 6 layers of mahogany veneer, laid in opposing diagonal directions over a mould to form a rigid shell. This mould can be made from CNC cut sheets of MDF that will slot together in an egg crate style assembly.

The mould is then skinned with wood battens which would be faired and used to build up the layers of veneer. The outer surface of this mould needs to match the inner shape of the hull.

The last step is the comparison of the scan data to the newly lofted hull skin and transom.

Images: courtesy of Daniel Lee (Dan Lee Boat Building). For more information on Daniel and his work with the EinScan H visit www.danleeboatbuilding.co.uk