Scanning for danger | Crash protection firm R&G embrace scanners and computer modelling for design

We’ve been buying bolt-on extras for our motorcycles for decades, with many now opting for aftermarket crash protection in a bid to give their bike a little extra armour should it take a tumble.

R&G know this all too well and have been building impact protectors since 1999. From humble beginnings, their products are now distributed and sold across the world – with everything designed and developed by a small team in the south of England.

• Related: How to fit R&G crash protection to your motorcycle

In order to ensure things are produced in a timely fashion, the Hampshire firm have now embraced a use of laser scanners and CAD software to work on and test new products in a virtual environment, without the need for the bike to be present.

“Even if we only get a bike in for a day or two, we can scan the whole thing and almost virtually test products,” Senior Design Engineer, Dan Moth told MCN.

“We’ve got all the 3D models of our products; we’ve got a 3D model of the bike in front of us that is accurate normally down to 0.5mm,” he continued. “Our scanner is capable of going down to 0.013mm on some products if we need to be that accurate.”

Although the team embraced a use of scanners around four years ago, they’ve moved more recently to a handheld device known as a Creaform HandyScan – a device which can accurately cover a full bike in just a couple of hours.

In simple terms, it works by directing a laser towards the motorcycle, with the reflected beams then allowing it to generate the image of the bike. Once this is done, it can be worked on as a digital image, rather than continuously going to and from a physical motorcycle for reference.

• Related: Bosch boss promises more radar tech on new bikes

The scans are generated by placing reflective stickers on to the area of the bike you want to illustrate, with the laser showing up on the component in a grid pattern.

“These are just little reflective stickers and what the scanner is going to do is use these as little reference points,” Moth continued, using our long-term test Honda CBR600RR as an example.

“It actually works better if you put them on in a random pattern because if you put them on in a perfect grid then the referencing system gets a bit confused.”

Individual scans can be joined together to generate a more complete view of the motorcycle should it be desired. The scans can also be used to demonstrate the potential look of a product on a bike, before it’s sent to the onsite 3D printer and fitted in reality.

“One of the most important things, when you know the fairing is going to be quite close to what you’re working with, is a layered scan,” the design engineer continued.

“We would scan the bike with the fairing on, turn the scanner off, remove the fairing, and scan it again – so when you come to work virtually, you’ve got a fairing you can turn on and off as you go.”

Checking what already fits

Before the scanner is used, the first step is to work out what can be used and tweaked from R&G’s existing product line – with many bikes on the market now coming as updates on previous versions.

Dan Moth explains: “We’ll have a look online and do our research to see what parts are shared with other models. We know that a lot of the products we already have should fit, but where things change – like the fairings, the wings, often the suspension changes between models, and the variants may have different components.”

Saving time with 3D printing

Once a machine has been scanned, and products designed on the computer, they go to the onsite 3D printers to be prototyped. They can then be fitted to the motorcycle to check fitment and finishes.

“We’ve got three 3D printers and they’re critical to what we do now,” R&G’s Dan Moth added. “We used to go into our machine shop and get on the lathe and get on the mill and used to make all these components ourselves – folding up radiator guards in person.

• Related: 3D printed motorcycle is a sign of things to come

“It was fun to do, but takes a long time, but if you can sit down and design something, and then send it to the 3D printer, you can hit print, and that means you can start designing the next thing.”

He continued: “Our efficiency almost doubled overnight because it meant the team of four people could suddenly be printing three things at once and be working on three other things.

• Related: 3D printed motorcycle bodywork

“It really eases the pressure, because you also have to take fitting instruction photos.

“If it doesn’t fit, you can adjust something. You can edit it, and print another one – hit print before you leave one day, and you come back in, in the morning and it just exists ready for you to check.”