Posted to News on 29th Jul 2007, 19:57
Reverse engineering and dimensional inspection service
CRP Technology is introducing a new reverse engineering and dimensional inspection service. Reverse engineering technologies are increasing required to reduce design time and obtain high-quality products, as well as completing the 'design loop' that includes CAD/CAM and rapid prototyping technologies.
Starting from the digitalisation of a physical model, it is now possible to generate a 3D CAD model that becomes the starting point of a new product development. The new service allows CRP to offer different mathematical models according to the customer requests: starting from the virtual point cloud from the scan, CRP can create STL files suited to production and rapid prototyping, NURBS surfaces (B class), style surfaces (A class) or parametric solids.
The same hardware and software tools used for reverse engineering allow CRP to digitise the complete surfaces of a part, compare it with the original CAD model and generate a measure report that highlights the dimensional inconsistencies. The reverse engineering service offers a qualified consultancy for 3D scanning, CAD modelling, dimensional inspection, component and equipment quality control.
In order to offer this service, CRP Technology uses a seven-axis Faro Platinum Arm with a Faro Laser Line Probe optical system. The spherical measuring range is 3m (10ft), the scanning speed is 19,200 points/second and the two-sigma accuracy in non-contact measurements is 0.05mm.
On-site inspections
The system is completely portable, enabling scans to be performed at the customer's site.
The use of the seven-axis arm, combined with the laser system, enables CRP to make contact measurements or optical scans at the same time, using the same reference system. The lightness of the tool and the huge number of freedom grades make scanning fast and reliable, even for complex.
CRP Technology also has various three-dimensional coordinate measurement machines (CMMs). Different measurement software packages can be used for off-line data processing and the inspection of geometrical features and surfaces.
All four measurement machines have a Renishaw PH10M probing set and a Renishaw SCR200 automatic probe changer; this CMM's configuration offers great measurement flexibility while maintaining the maximum accuracy.
The new reverse engineering and dimensional inspection service can be used in many ways:
- Master model scanning
- Model scanning and rapid prototyping directly from the scanned STL files
- Mould and tool scanning, and rapid tooling directly from scanned STL files
- A Class and B Class surfaces CAD models from STL files
- Duplication and digital filing
- Ergonomic checking and Digital MockUp
- Style development, concept design and 3D rendering
- Dimensional inspection and shrinkage analysis of mouldings, castings and prototypes
- Dimensional inspection of tooling, moulds and wear checking
- Accurate dimensional and geometrical inspection of axis distances, holes, planes, angles, parallelism, concentricity, etc
- Virtual cloud-to-CAD comparison between scanned physical model and original CAD file (inspection)
- Complete measurement report generation (colour mapping, sections, statistic error report)
The reverse engineering technologies help to reduce the time needed for: sampling, filing, sharing and reproduction of objects in several business areas. The main application areas are: racing, automotive, industrial design, packaging, modelling, plastic injection moulding, foundry, ceramics, electronics, biomedical, sculpture and art.
