Integrating reverse engineering and 3D printing for the Manufacturing process

Abstract

The objective of this project is to utilize the reverse engineering process to scan and transform the geometry of a part of an airplane wing into a useful three-dimensional (3D) computer model platform that can be sent to either a 3D printer or Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine and turned into an actual physical part. Also, the computer model is converted to a 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD) model in order to perform stress analysis on it and validate the reliability of the part in real world conditions. The process includes utilizing a Faro Arm laser scanner, Geomagic reverse engineering software, Stratasys 3D printer, SolidWorks simulation software, and Mastercam Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) software. The laser scanner and reverse engineering software create a 3D computer model of the part which is used as the basic model for the manufacturing process. In addition, the 3D printer is utilized to create a prototype of the part to ensure the manufacturability of the part early in the design phase. Furthermore, SolidWorks simulation software is used for performing stress analysis and making recommendations to improve the reliability of the part. The stress and deformation distributions data are assessed to determine how the part can properly handle the stresses when it encounters in real world circumstances. Finally, Mastercam for SolidWorks software is utilized to generate a G-code for the purpose of manufacturing the part by a CNC machine.