Reconstruction of damaged parts by integration reverse engineering (RE) and rapid prototyping (RP)

Abstract

This paper presents an integrated design cycle of reverse engineering (RE) and rapid prototyping (RP) for reconstruction of a damaged parts in industry and production systems by taking gear wheel in a rotating machinery as an example. In order to replace the damaged part or destructive part, it is required to change urgently with new part to avoid the financial and production loss to the industry. This can be possible with the help of 3D scanning and additive manufacturing. 3D scanning help to capture digital information of parts from space to CAD software. The physical to electronic translation is done by a layered digitizing method called Deconstruction and semi-automated software tools are used to create a CAD virtual solid model. Conventional CAD tools are used to manipulate the model of damaged part and reconstruct damaged area to form new one by CAD tools as necessary. A newly created 3D solid model is translated from virtual to physical model by using additive manufacturing process. Here FDM process is used. A designer can then use hand tools to form the model by carving, shaping, and joining additional material. In this paper, a broken and damaged gear wheel of rotating machinery have been taken. This damaged model is scanned, then gear is reconstructed in CATIA V5 software and exact model of gear wheel is formed. This model is then printed by using 3D printing machine (uPrint SE Plus). Hence, by integration of reverse engineering and RP techniques, the gear model is prepared which can be used in rotatory machinery or casted for more numbers if required.