The Swedish supercar manufacturer Koenigsegg Automotive AB was founded by Christian von Koenigsegg in 1994, when he was just 22 years old.

He wanted to create a sports car like no other — a lightweight mid-engine car with a detachable and readily storable hardtop.

He says: “Every car we have created since has been based on this original vision, and we are now onto our fifth production model.”

The company now has a workforce of 70; and like many other manufacturers, it had been using a portable measuring arm to measure parts, set up fixtures and reverse-engineer components.

However, Mr Koenigsegg wanted to further streamline its production — from the design process to the final assembly of the car.

He turned to metrology company Creaform and its Swedish distributor, MLT Maskin & Laser Teknik AB (Creaform’s UK agent is Peterborough-based Measurement Solutions www.measurement-solutions.co.uk).

With over 300 hand-formed carbon-fibre parts in every car, it was essential that the quality control equipment used could effectively scan both dark and highly reflective surfaces — the most challenging surfaces to scan, as light
is absorbed by dark objects and reflected by shiny surfaces, creating ‘noise’ during analysis.

Creaform has developed portable scanning solutions that are specifically engineered to overcome these issues; for example, the company has optimised its 3-D scanner performance levels on shiny surfaces with its latest MetraScan 3D scanners, while its new HandyProbe portable CMM can achieve instant measurements at twice the accuracy of the previous unit.

Moreover, the two inspection solutions have been optimised for reliable operation on the shopfloor.

The MetraScan3D and HandyScan3D scanners are proving to be ideal in terms of system performance and data acquisition accuracy on dark surfaces and bare carbon-fibre car bodies.

Paired with the HandyProbe portable CMM for single-point measurements, Koenigsegg engineers can rapidly adjust jigs and inspect parts to get extremely quick feedback on the quality being achieved by the company’s production line.

Mr Koenigsegg and his team are currently working on integrating the HandyScan3D into the design process and furthering the capabilities of Creaform’s probing and scanning systems in the company’s production process.