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Reverse Engineering for Better Quality
For a leading European automaker, reverse engineering is a major tool incontinual engine improvement. The company is using reverse engineeringto implement a new computer-aided inspection (CAI) process for a plantthat builds nearly 600,000 engines a year.More than 900 specialists oversee quality assurance on the plant’sproduction lines and operating units. Core engine block components, suchas the crankcase, crankshaft, connecting rods, and the cylinder head, areverified by spot checks in the company’s precision measurementlaboratory, where engine components must conform to tolerances ofhundredths of a millimeter.Faced with these rigorous quality demands, the company wanted to movebeyond traditional inspection processes using coordinate measurementmachines (CMMs). CMMs collect a sample of discrete points on a part,one at a time. The process is slow and does not adequately addresssurface-to-surface inspection required to verify the accuracy of sheet metalor free-form surfaces. Results are recorded in a 2-D geometricdimensioning and tolerance (GD&T) report that does not directly correlatewith the 3-D CAD model of the part.The CAI process uses noncontact scanners to collect millions of points inseconds.Software based on reverse engineering principles then processes theinformation automatically to compare an as-built part to its CADrepresentation.The process creates an interactive loop among the design, manufacturing,and quality control divisions.The first step in the CAI process is to capture accurate geometry anddimensions by placing target points, which are used to align multiplescans, on the surface of the existing engine component. The engine part isthen scanned with a noncontact white-light scanner that generates apolygonal model.Jagged edges, holes, and surfaces on the polygonal model are smoothedout, and the model is cleaned to remove extraneous points or noise thatmight undermine the data. The completed files are then merged, aligned,and saved in STL format. The STL model is imported into CAI software,which automatically allows engineers to align and compare the STL modelwith the original CAD data to determine exactly where variations in thegeometry occur and to analyze how deviations might impact the part’sfunctionality.
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