Reverse engineering
Introducing Reverse Engineering
Reverse engineering is a field that has undergone a lot of development in recent times. It is used so as to reduce the time to market products, as well as easily develop or change existing designs so as to better suit a particular engineering purpose. Reverse engineering, as the name implies goes against the conventional ‘product development cycle’ (Raja and Fernandes, 2011), where CAD drawings, and designs are generated after a prototype is existent. The world in recent times has become extremely competitive. Businesses can not afford to fall behind as consumer demands are constantly changing. Reverse engineering allows companies to have an edge, as their flexibility through adaptation is enabled through reverse engineering. (Raja & Fernandes, pp 1-5, 2011)
Reverse engineering has been split up into 3 sections which consist of:
• Scanning
• Point Processing
• Application of model geometric development
(Raja & Fernandes, pp5-6, 2011)
One of the concepts of reverse engineering is to be able to replicate an existing part, when no data of the part is available initially. Being able to reproduce the geometric data of a part from a model to a computer is integral to reverse engineering. New technologies such as 3-D scanning have helped establish the field of reverse engineering, as it has allowed for geometric data existent within a model to be represented in a digital form. Reverse engineering uses 3-D scanning in a sense that the original model is our data source; through scanning this design, data is obtained on the computer so as to enable changes to be made. The scanning methods use Computer Numerical Control (CNC) system, which control the probes and the gathers the data. (Wego Wang, 2010)
3-D Scanning methods:
There are two main classifications of 3-D scanners existent within industry, one being contact scanners and the other being Non-contact scanner.
Contact scanners work on the principle of using
Reverse engineering is a field that has undergone a lot of development in recent times. It is used so as to reduce the time to market products, as well as easily develop or change existing designs so as to better suit a particular engineering purpose. Reverse engineering, as the name implies goes against the conventional ‘product development cycle’ (Raja and Fernandes, 2011), where CAD drawings, and designs are generated after a prototype is existent. The world in recent times has become extremely competitive. Businesses can not afford to fall behind as consumer demands are constantly changing. Reverse engineering allows companies to have an edge, as their flexibility through adaptation is enabled through reverse engineering. (Raja & Fernandes, pp 1-5, 2011)
Reverse engineering has been split up into 3 sections which consist of:
• Scanning
• Point Processing
• Application of model geometric development
(Raja & Fernandes, pp5-6, 2011)
One of the concepts of reverse engineering is to be able to replicate an existing part, when no data of the part is available initially. Being able to reproduce the geometric data of a part from a model to a computer is integral to reverse engineering. New technologies such as 3-D scanning have helped establish the field of reverse engineering, as it has allowed for geometric data existent within a model to be represented in a digital form. Reverse engineering uses 3-D scanning in a sense that the original model is our data source; through scanning this design, data is obtained on the computer so as to enable changes to be made. The scanning methods use Computer Numerical Control (CNC) system, which control the probes and the gathers the data. (Wego Wang, 2010)
3-D Scanning methods:
There are two main classifications of 3-D scanners existent within industry, one being contact scanners and the other being Non-contact scanner.
Contact scanners work on the principle of using