Al McLevish founded AcuSurf in 2005 in response to the need for greater accuracy in product design. His process takes inspection engineering to the next level by creating an accurate 3D scanned image representation of any manufactured product and comparing it to an associated CAD model.
Al’s extensive engineering background includes work as a Pro/E Technical Training Engineer for several established manufacturing companies, including: Medtronic, Guidant, Eaton, John Deere, Case and Caterpillar. Following his desire to learn all facets of product development and design software, he focused his career towards mold, die and fixture design engineering and expanded his skill-set in 2D AutoCad modeling to parametric CAD modeling software.
After spending several years working with numerable consumer products, Al decided to specialize in the medical product line- including plastic injection molds, trim dies, die cast aluminum and magnesium tools as well as part fixturing. His innovative process demonstrated to his employer and customers the increased efficiency, greater amount of usable data, and the ability to stream line the manufacturing process by switching from 2D and 3D wire frame CadKey modeling to a parametric solid modeling with associative 2D drawings process. Al drove mold design from 3D wire frame modeling to extremely successful 3D parametric/associative solid modeling. The power of parametric functionality was harnessed, and effective core and cavity splitting techniques were created. While writing programs and training the engineering staff, Al applied key modeling techniques such as proper design intent, top down assembly tying data into associative 2D detail drawings and a bill of materials.
Staying current with changing technology, Al has now ventured from contract manufacturing to cutting edge technologies in 3D scanning. This exciting technology provides immeasurable benefits to any manufacturer by incorporating a scanner (data capture device), which results in an extremely fast and effective way to inspect manufactured products. Al has interfaced with the necessary scanning hardware, and data acquisition software quite extensively. He has even produced his own code to automate inspection referred to as “Rapid Inspection”. Al has surpassed traditional reporting processes through his created script that generates a color map statistical deviation reporting of 500 products from a mold within an hour.
Through AcuSurf, Al has provided the manufacturing environment with scanning processes that are able to produce highly accurate reverse engineered CAD models. AcuSurf is breaking the ground on accuracy and speed unheard of by traditional reverse engineering methods.
