The increasing use of 3D scanning services by design engineers and technicians is primarily being driven by how useful the technology is for reverse engineering processes. The latter essentially captures information about existing products in order to recreate and reproduce them in a highly accurate manner.
Reverse Engineering in Australia
The process of reverse engineering is mostly used to recreate digital information by scanning objects that don’t have any existing CAD data or drawings. This makes the process ideal for reproducing spare parts and defective/ damaged components. Reverse engineering is used across many industries, including manufacturing, automotive, aerospace, and defense, consumer electronics, healthcare, etc.
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3D Scanning and Reverse Engineering Services
A host of equipment is used in 3D scanning, along with reverse engineering software, including laser scanners, light scanners, coordinate measurement machines (CMMs) and industrial CT scanners. Data is collected in the form of point cloud information which is later altered into a usable mesh or CAD model.
Other projects might be legacy items such as classic car parts that are no longer manufactured. A big part of legacy work comes from defense and aerospace contracts where the machines involved might have been built several decades ago using 2D CAD or before CAD was developed. “They still need to fix bits,” says Earl, “so they want a digital library of everything.”
A 3D scanning service provider can bring the following advantages to your business:
- The use of 3D scanning service in Australia, for the purpose of reverse engineering, is quite popular, owing to the precision, speed, and efficiency of the scan data. Added to this is the advantage of low-cost scanning services that has made the entire process more accessible for all businesses, big or small.
- Reverse engineering is a streamlined process that can seamlessly integrate 3D scan data into CAD. A point cloud is translated into a polygon file. The latter is then utilized to render a 3D visualization of the process of scanning. Following this, reverse engineering software is used to fill any gaps in design, with the help of a closed mesh, that might have been missed during scanning.
The conventional methods of measuring used by design engineers included cumbersome physical equipment, such as rulers, calipers, etc. aimed at gathering information about the features of a component or product. This process of manual measurement needed a high level of accuracy and skills, not to mention immense concentration to withstand the long duration of the entire process. Moreover, it would probably be impossible to create or recreate an accurate impression of curved, organic surfaces in a 2D CAD program.
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With the help of advanced 3D scanning in Melbourne that aids the process of reverse engineering, businesses can now comfortably speed up and improve their design progression. This combination works like magic, producing millions of measurements in a matter of minutes.
Any complex designs, ranging from planes, cylinders, or profiles in cross-section can be effortlessly created from the mesh geometry. Once this is obtained, creating a fully parametric solid model will be a smooth sail!