Reverse Engineering involves taking existing physical parts and assemblies and creating CAD Models and detailed tolerance drawings. The need typically arises when a company wants to make improvements to an existing outside design or they have insufficient design documentation (CAD and drawings) for internal designs or that require CAD data for modern manufacturing methods.
The 3-D data that is collected and CAD modeled, can be used to troubleshoot, reproduce, study, analyze, inspect, or can be applied to other future applications or product enhancements. 3D CAD models can be easily updated for changes in the product design and/or tool or die design. Tool and Dies can even be generated by using the surface models created by our 3D reverse engineering services. So if your finely tuned stamping or injection mold has just broken, we can use our 3D scanning services and digitally fix it in a CAD model and have you back up and running in short order.
At Peak Tach Engineers, we have been performing reverse engineering services and projects since our inception. Our large staff of qualified engineers has a depth of experience in these activities and a background in design engineering needed to produce excellent results.
Understanding the function of the component or assembly is paramount to the reverse engineering process. It is not enough to duplicate a physical part into CAD space, but you must know how the part/assembly interacts with surrounding components in the overall system. This will allow the proper tolerance stacking information that is needed for dimensioned and tolerance prints. We have engineers certified in tolerance stacking using Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing (GD&T) and have experience based on actual design work to verify the efficacy of our process. This background also gives us insight into the likely design intent of areas of a component’s design. We do rely on our customers for industry specific knowledge and information pertinent to their specific needs and design. We are the experts at what we do and know that our customers are the experts at what they do. So, we want to include their expertise in our reverse engineering activities to produce the best possible result.
Our focus is on Mechanical and Electro-Mechanical reverse engineering projects. Areas outside of these (such as software development, circuit board design and optics) are handled on a case-by-case basis by using outside experts or our customers internal experts. Material and surface analysis is taken care of by our network of local suppliers.
Our process continues by gathering all existing information and digitizing provided sample parts. We often receive outdated prints, manuals, broken parts or other written data to use as starting points and guides in the reverse engineering process. We seamlessly combine all available information in the reverse engineering process.
In addition to laser scanning, Peak Tach Engineers supports precision structured light scanning for certain 3D digitizing and metrology applications. Structured light scanners use ultra-high accuracy/resolution optical imaging to triangulate points from multiple locations. By comparing millions of pixels, this process can produce a more precise point cloud with a better definition of subtle edge features.
With structured white light, scans are typically accurate up to less than 0.001 of an inch. Structured light can capture a denser point cloud that typical laser scanning. Structured light scans can be so accurate that this process is a popular choice when a near exact virtual model is required.
For this reason, white light scanning is ideal for scanning components such as sheet metal parts, tools and dies, turbine blades, molded/cast parts, and intricate prototypes. And by using a non-contact process, data is collected efficiently with minimal setups.
Since the dense point cloud captured by a structured light scanner can be interpolated into a cad model other 3D Digitizing methods by Peak Tach Engineers, our unique modeling expertise is key to harnessing this unique technology for your reverse engineering and metrology application.
Peak Tach Engineers also uses structured blue light technology to capture up to eight million data points in a few seconds.
Benefits of structured blue light scanning over structured white light scanning include:
▪ Increased portability of equipment
▪ A longer-lasting light source
▪ Lower temperature influence due to the use of LEDs
▪ The ability to scan inside a well-lit room while filtering out other light sources
Will structured light scanning work for your project? Consult with the experts at Peak Tach Engineers today.
Peak Tach Engineers utilizes the most advanced systems for structured light scanning to perform service work for you. High accuracy combined with high resolution makes this 3D scanning technology an excellent choice for most reverse engineering and inspection needs.
Our entire staff of degreed engineers is fully trained in using this equipment to meet your project requirements
Blue Light is a version of this structured light scanning technology (White light scanning also falls under this technology umbrella). It operates by combining a projector, camera and lens system to allow data collection. The projector creates a pattern of light and dark areas on the object being measured. The camera takes an image of this pattern overlaid on the object. The projector and camera are at an angle to each other. Because the angle is well known, the focal distance is well known and the distance between the camera and projector are well known, each pixel of the image taken can be triangulated using the pattern of light and dark areas to create a point cloud. The pattern is typically straight lines or a well-known random pattern.
This technology makes use of a lens to magnify areas of the object being measured. The effect is to focus all of the camera’s image pixels into a smaller or larger area of the object. This allows more detail to be captured in smaller objects and larger areas to be covered in large objects. We have a complete set of lenses for each of our systems to accommodate your specific project requirements. Our experienced engineers know the exact options to use for your project to yield the best quality data in the shortest amount of time.
The blue light resolution is excellent compared to other technologies such as laser scanning. The resolution is the spacing between point cloud points and is determined by the lens volume (the specific lenses used on the scanner) and the size of the camera in megapixels. This is opposed (and often confused with) accuracy which is the closeness of each measured point cloud point to the actual dimensional value. This excellent resolution allows for the recreation of very small details and is generally required for highly detailed reverse engineering projects.
