How Reverse Engineering Uses 3D Laser Scanning?
3D laser scanning has allowed engineers, manufacturers, and developers to produce extremely high-quality prototypes, parts, and molds for research and products. Medical researchers, aerospace technicians, and automotive engineers need the highest quality scans possible as they use printed parts, casts, and molds to better analyze and improve their design and production methods. This is known as reverse engineering. 3D scanning reverse engineering is a robust method of creating powerful digital designs from a physical part. It can speed up your design workflow while enabling you to capture and modify physical shapes. This means that you can use 3D printed parts on existing products of different sizes and kinds to improve their design features.
Reverse engineering involves the un-building of components for determining the actual fabrication process of the product. It has helped manufacturers and designers in redesigning numerous components while reducing resources required, compared to creating a product from scratch.
The best 3D scanner for reverse engineering benefits from its precise point capture technology for scanning and detecting all the surface points on the object and using the data to reconstruct the entire product.
From Physical to Digital: Meshes and Solids
When converting physical objects into digital models, there is a significant incompatibility between meshes and solids. This is because meshes and Solids are two different types of 3D models.
A mesh is the primary output of the 3D scanner and uses the STL file format. It represents the surface of the object with triangles connected from edge to edge. Meshes don’t contain details about the product. It only shows the position of the triangles that define its shape.
Solids, on the other hand, hold information about how the product is designed. This information is encrypted into the object as features using a stack of logical steps. In the solids 3D model, it is easy to change the dimensions for a single feature. The best part is that the rest of the object will update to accommodate the change.
The ways you can update a mesh 3D model are limited because meshes lack details about the construction of the product. You will need robust 3D scanning reverse engineering services that can help you modify meshes. 3D reverse engineering services can help in making major alterations and modifications to the underlying design of a product. It works in a way that the mesh model is converted into a solid CAD drawing using reverse engineering.
3D Reverse Engineering Process Is The Way To Go – But, Why?
3D reverse engineering services make things easier because it uses the precise point capture technique for taking precise measurements of the product. The problem with structural or physical reverse engineering is that every component of the product cannot be disassembled. Also, the majority of times, the shape of the product does not allow for taking exact measurements. In some cases, there are instances where sub-components are interlinked, making it extremely difficult to take proper measurements. This is exactly where 3D scanning reverse engineering comes into the picture.
How Does 3D Laser Scanning Make Things Simpler?
With 3D images and measurements, you can deconstruct the entire component, make minor changes and modifications to the component, and make it better and more efficient. As said earlier, reverse engineering is the process of measuring an object using 3D scanning techniques and then reconstructing it as a 3D model. The most common 3D scanning techniques used in the industry are industrial CT scanners, laser scanners, CMMs and structured light digitizers, and more. Advanced 3D scanning and reverse engineering enable sharp and clear measurement of dimensions that are harder to scan and measure.
The reverse engineering workflow includes:
- Preparing the object for scanning. The object is spray-coated with a temporary matte powder for enhancing the scan accuracy
- A high-accuracy 3D scanner is used to capture the important sections of the part
- Next, the mesh model is refined by repairing small gaps
- The mesh model is then imported into the CAD software, which is equipped with reverse engineering tools
- Finally, important surfaces from the mesh model are extracted to create a solid model
Advantages of 3D Laser Scanning in Reverse Engineering
There are several benefits of 3D laser scanning reverse engineering services that include:
- Minimize the time taken for reverse engineering
- Allows to inspect whether the modified or changed 3D design would work or not
- Enables changes to the design
- Makes the process of reverse engineering simpler
- Gives precise measurements and diagrams
- Minimizes the need for manual deconstruction
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