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Deskan 7 scans fragile documents for Australian Historical Society

Wauchope Historical Society members with the Deskan scanner
Wauchope Historical Society members
Ray Cooper and Steve Harris with their
new Deskan 7 scanner.

Shapemakers, the Australian manufacturer of the Deskan 7 scanner, has sent us a newspaper cutting detailing the success it has had in supplying the Wauchope Historical Society with the means of scanning old and sensitive public documents.

The Deskan 7 large format scanner is an oddity among scanning solutions. First, it is arguably not a large format scanner at all but an A4 one. It uses an A4 scanner head to scan documents in strips, then automatically stitches them together into an A1 or A0 image. As the KartoScan FB VLS flatbed, probably the largest scanner in the universe, works the same way to create supersize images - no-one denies it is BIG! - it is certainly unfair to place this size distinction on the Deskan alone. As it creates large format scanned images, we will argue that the Deskan is a large format scanner.

Second, and more practically, because a glass sheet must be placed over the document before the scanning of the strips starts, the Deskan scanner head never comes in direct contact with the media being scanned. This makes it a very useful solution for scanning old and fragile documents. Once they are carefully laid down flat on a table, the weight of the glass flattens them and protects them from the moving scanner head. This reduces the likelihood of machine damage to the document. The only real danger to the document is human error while it is being positioned on the table.

Historical group leads the way

The newspaper article above reads:

The Wauchope Historical Society has led the way in the reproduction of newspapers, charts and town plans in Australia ... and they have the scanner to prove it.

Spokesperson, Ray Cooper said the society had purchased a Shapemaker DESKAN scanner following a successful A$5800 Community Grant from the Port Macquarie Hastings Council.

"The scanner is capable of scanning up to A0 size documents which is particularly important when you are scanning old newspapers, charts and large photographs," he said.

"We are currently scanning the early pages of the Hastings Shire Gazette, Port Macquarie News and the Camden Haven Courier, but, during the process,we have unearthed some vital early charts and town plans which we are also scanning.

"Importantly, once we have completed these scans, we are more than happy to share this information with other historical groups in the area.

"Because of the size of the scanner we can successfully scan one page of a broadsheet newspaper in three scans ... this assists us enormously in the process."

Despite the brittle nature of the product they are reproducing, the scanner leads to a more accurate scan for type, photographs and illustrations.

Coupled with the new scanner, the team at the museum, led by Steve Harris, have also refined an Optical Character Recognition (OCR) program which can search and highlight in any newspaper they have scanned.

"When this program was introduced here, we were the first society to do so in Australia," Mr Harris said. "Even two members of The National Library who dropped into the museum one day, were astounded to see what we were doing here in Wauchope. The OCR program has now been implemented in many other museums throughout NSW and Australia."

Mr Cooper said work on scanning pages was continuing under the guidance of Mr Harris, Don Kennedy, other volunteers and Work for the Dole participants.

As result, several institutions, museums and libraries have invested in the Deskan 7, the majority of them in Australia. It now boasts a growing number of users. However, scanning fagile documents is only one of the Deskan's capabilities. It is increasingly adept at reverse engineering.

Its owner, Shapemakers, is one of Brisbane's leading CNC engineering shops and sign-making businesses. Shapemakers' own experience made them aware that for many CNC companies reproducing profiles and shapes, like those of ordinary gaskets, seals and or artwork, into a cutting file is a slow process. As a result, Shapemakers developed the Deskan FastParts solution in order to eliminate the need for hand measuring and redrawing. Deskan FastParts allows the user to automatically scan and convert gaskets, seals, old drawings, etc, into CAD-editable, vector DXF file for CNC cutting.

The Deskan's CNC solution is called Deskan FastParts. It includes a command line link to Scan2CAD raster to vector conversion software.

Shapemakers machine their own precision engineered materials and components for use in the Deskan 7. It is possible to be supplied with a custom-built table that raises or lowers the scanning surface to allow thick items up to 200mm thick to be scanned for Deskan FastParts. Users are able to scan and vectorise parts in as little as five minutes. Once a part is vectorised, a .DXF file can be sent to a cutting application for accurate reproduction. The great benefit of this system is that it has been developed in-house by engineers with a need to meet their specific reverse engineering requirements.

Being an CNC engineering shop and scanning solutions provider has its advantages. According to Ian Ferrier, general manager of Shapemakers, his company "did a custom build table that could attach to a vacuum to hold down the documents while they were being scanned" for the Deskan system sold to Wauchope Historical Society. Try getting a solution like that from any of the mainstream large format scanner suppliers.

Shapemakers:
www.deskan.com

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