Rapid Tooling & Reverse Engineering

The term Rapid Tooling (RT) is typically used to describe a process which either uses a Rapid
Prototyping (RP) model as a pattern to create a mould quickly or uses the Rapid Prototyping
process directly to fabricate a tool for a limited volume of prototypes.
Making tools using RP Process to
 Minimize the cost
 Increase the productivity
 Increase dimensional accuracy
 Decrease total time
How is it different from conventional tooling
 Speed
As the name itself, rapid tooling is much faster than conventional tooling. It is particularly
useful in time-sensitive small production runs, like in rapid prototyping. In this case, the
demand for a quick process that allows multiple iterations of the same concept is solved by
using rapid tooling.
 Cost
Rapid tooling is more economical to use than conventional tooling because it requires less
human work and time. Since it is done by computer programs and machines, it is not prone to
human errors. It leads to further savings on labor and less wastage.
 Quality
The downside of using rapid tooling is durability and lifespan. These types of the tooling also
affect the longevity of the products it created. However, this is not all bad since there are
products that are not needed to last for a long time. Therefore, there is no need to invest in its
tooling.
• Tolerances are wider than for a conventional tool.
Classification of Rapid Tooling
Rapid Tooling can be broadly classified as:
1. Indirect Tooling
2. Direct Tooling
• Indirect tooling methods used RP inserts to produce moulds
• But direct RT methods allow injection moulding and die-casting inserts to build directly from
3D CAD models.
Indirect Tooling
1. Indirect or Pattern-based Tooling approaches use master patterns to produce a mould
or die.
2. Indirect tooling methods are intended as prototyping or pre-production tooling
processes and not production methods. • Most any rapid prototyping process can yield
patterns for indirect tooling.
Role of Indirect methods in tool production: RP technologies offer the capabilities of rapid
production of 3D solid objects directly from CAD. Instead of several weeks, a prototype can
be completed in a few days or even a few hours. Unfortunately, with RP techniques, there is
only a limited range of materials from which prototypes can be made. Consequently, although
visualization and dimensional verification are possible, functional testing of prototypes often
is not due to different mechanical and thermal properties of prototype compared to production
part. All this leads to the next step which is for RP industry to target tooling as a natural way
to capitalize on 3D CAD modelling and RP technology. With increase in accuracy of RP
techniques, numerous processes have been developed for producing tooling from RP masters.
The most widely used indirect RT methods are to use RP masters to make silicon room
temperature vulcanizing moulds for plastic parts and as sacrificial models or investment casting
of metal parts. These processes are usually known as Soft Tooling Techniques.
Techniques for Indirect RT
1) RSP (Rapid Solidification Process) Tooling 2) Reconfigurable Tooling 3) Silicone Rubber
Tooling 4) Aluminium filled Epoxy Tooling 5) Spray Metal Tooling 6) Cast kirksite 7) 3D
Keltool 8) RIM.
Direct Tooling: Indirect methods for tool production necessitate a minimum of one
intermediate replication process. This might result in a loss of accuracy and to increase the time
for building the tool. To overcome some of the drawbacks of indirect method, new rapid tooling
methods have come into existence that allow injection moulding and die casting inserts to be
built directly from 3D CAD models.
Classification of Direct Rapid Tooling methods: Direct Rapid Tooling Processes can be divided
into two main groups 1st group: It includes less expensive methods with shorter lead times.
Direct RT methods that satisfy these requirements are called methods for firm tooling or bridge
tooling. RP processes for firm tooling fill the gap between soft and hard tooling.
2nd group: Solutions for hard tooling are based on fabrication of sintered metal steel, iron copper
powder inserts infiltrated with copper or bronze. It includes RT methods that allow inserts for
pre-production and production tools to be built. These methods come under hard tooling.
Classification of Direct RT methods:
1) Firm Tooling Methods:
Direct AIM
DTM Copper PA Tooling
DTM Sand form tooling
Electro optical system direct chroming process LOM tooling in polymer.
3DP Ceramic shells.
2) Hard Tooling Methods:
EOS direct tool
DTM rapid tool process
LOM tooling in ceramic
3DP direct metal tooling
Soft Tooling: It can be used to intake multiple wax or plastic parts using conventional injection
moulding techniques. It produces short term production patterns. Injected wax patterns can be
used to produce castings. Soft tools can usually be fabricated for ten times less than a machine
tool.
Hard Tooling: Patterns are fabricated by machining either tool steel or aluminium into the
negative shape of the desired component. Steel tools are very expensive yet typically last
indefinitely building millions of parts in a mass production environment. Aluminum tools are
less expensive than steel and are used for lower production quantities.
Comparison of Soft & Hard Tooling
Soft Tooling:
 Low cost Tooling
 Excellent for Medium-Low Volumes high mix.
 Higher Piece Part Cost.
 Faster lead time and Response.
 More flexibility to change design.
 Increased Product Variance.
Hard Tooling:
 Higher cost Tooling
 Lower Piece Part Cost.
 No Design Flexibility.
 Repeatability.
 Longer lead time due to tooling lead time.
 Process for high volumes.
Soft tooling vs. hard tooling:
Hard Tooling: RP systems that are used for direct hard tooling due to characteristics of
sintering process and implemented building materials (powder materials based on metal)
require obtaining extremely high temperatures in primary process of tools manufacturing,
which is mostly realised through the application of lasers or some other sources of intent
energy. Delivery of first article samples, 4 weeks (very simple parts) – 12 weeks (normal
complexity) – longer for complex or parts requiring ceramic core tooling Delivery of
production, 2 – 12 weeks after First Article approval. Highest tooling expense Lowest
investment casting pattern cost Hard tooling will have the longest life. Simple tooling will last
for hundreds of thousands of parts. Complex tooling with slides and cores will wear over time
but can generally be refurbished. This is not normally necessary for many years. Yields the
best surface finish and most consistent dimensional control.
Soft Tooling: First a SLA master pattern is built and textured to client specifications. Next a
form is built around the master pattern and silicone is poured in, encasing the pattern. After the
silicone is cured the pattern is removed and the mold is ready for production. The urethane of
choice is then colour matched and injected into the mold. After the urethane cures the part is
removed from the mold, checked for quality and accuracy, then post cured for optimum
mechanical properties. Delivery of first article samples, 3 – 6 weeks Delivery of production, 2
– 12 weeks after First article approval Soft tooling is less costly than Hard Tooling Pattern cost
is higher than Hard Tooling. This is because the tooling will cycle slower due to the poor
thermal conductivity of mold material Life of soft tooling is limited. Life will depend upon the
complexity of part. The more complex the shorter the life Surface finish and dimensional
control is not as good as Hard Tooling A single SLA (stereolithography) or Objet pattern is
generally used to make the tooling Patterns made from individually produced patterns Each
casting produced will require one pattern. This method is generally used when small quantities
of investment castings are required for prototypes or rapid production of a few parts. But it is
becoming more and more popular to use as the fastest way to produce investment castings
where design changes or unknown future requirements allow for higher per piece pricing since
no tooling expense will be incurred. Some information about suitable investment casting
patterns is in order. To produce investment castings, it is necessary to shell the pattern. This
involves coating the pattern with a ceramic material. After shelling, the pattern must be
removed from the shell. This produces a void in the shell which will be the receptacle for the
molten metal. When the pattern is removed from the shell it must be removed completely and
without damaging the shell. Wax is a foundry friendly pattern material. The wax is removed
from shell by heating. This is generally done in an autoclave very quickly. As the shell heats
up the wax in immediate contact with the shell quickly changes state from solid to liquid and
is absorbed into the porous shell thus allowing room for the balance of pattern wax to heat up,
expand and be drained. , patterns do not melt and must be burned out of shell. Unfortunately,
some also expand and can severely crack the shell if not hollow. On thin edges it is not possible
to hollow the section and that is where the foundry‘s expertise is needed to help chose the most
appropriate pattern for your application. produce a pattern suitable for investment casting, due
to problems removing some other types of RP, rapid prototyping, patterns from shell. Surface
finish and dimensional stability is dependent upon part configuration SLA, Quick Cast
Stereolithography patterns Highest quality RP, rapid prototype, patterns from dimensional and
surface finish point of view SLS, Cast Form Selective Laser Sintering patterns Surface finish
is rough, about 250 RMS. Dimensionally of lower quality than SLA patterns. Objet Highest
quality RP, rapid prototype, patterns from dimensional and surface finish point of view.
Patterns must be hollowed out. Z-Corp Investment Casting Pattern Material Surface finish is
the roughest of all RP rapid prototype patterns. Least consistent dimensional stability of all RP,
rapid prototype, patterns; least costly of all RP, rapid prototype patterns. The most important
thing to remember is to get the foundry involved in your design early to allow the foundry to
give advice on how to make the part friendlier for investment casting.
Reverse Engineering
Reverse-engineering is the act of dismantling an object to see how it works. It is done primarily
to analyze and gain knowledge about the way something works but often is used to duplicate
or enhance the object. Many things can be reverse-engineered, including software, physical
machines, military technology and even biological functions related to how genes work.
The practice of reverse-engineering as applied to computer hardware and software is taken
from older industries. Software reverse-engineering focuses on a program's machine code --
the string of 0s and 1s that are sent to the logic processor. Program language statements are
used to turn the machine code back into the original source code.
Depending on the technology, the knowledge gained during reverse-engineering can be used
to repurpose obsolete objects, do a security analysis, gain a competitive advantage or simply
to teach someone about how something works. No matter how the knowledge is used or what
it relates to, reverse-engineering is the process of gaining that knowledge from a finished
object.

What is the purpose of reverse-engineering?

The purpose of reverse-engineering is to out how an object or system works. There are a variety
of reasons to do this. Reverse-engineering can be used to learn how something works and to
recreate the object or to create a similar object with added enhancements.
Often the goal of reverse-engineering software or hardware is to find a way to create a similar
product more inexpensively or because the original product is no longer available. Reverse-
engineering in information technology is also used to address compatibility issues and make
the hardware or software work with other hardware, software or operating systems that it wasn't
originally compatible with.
Apple's Logic Pro software, which lets musicians compose, record, arrange, edit and mix
music, is a good example. Logic Pro is only available for Mac devices, and it is relatively
expensive. The program has several proprietary digital instruments. With a bit of investigation,
a programmer could reverse-engineer those digital instruments, figure out how they work and
customize them for use in Logic Pro or to make them interoperable with other music software
that is compatible with Windows.
Companies often use reverse engineering on old electronic components, such as
discontinued printed circuit boards (PCBs) and connecting cards. Frequently, the products in
question will come from manufacturers that have since gone out of business. If the
manufacturer is still in business, they might no longer offer the part. The firms often reverse
engineer old electronics for the sake of continuity.
 If an old piece of computer equipment had functions that have since been lost amid the
subsequent changes in technology, reverse engineering allows manufacturers to rediscover
these formulas and bring them up to date. Reverse engineering also enables you to develop
components that bridge the new and the old, allowing users of older equipment to connect their
devices to modern computing equipment.
In some cases, the only way to obtain the design of an original product is through
reverse engineering. With some older products that have not been manufactured for 20 years
or more, the original 2D drawings are no longer available. Often, there will be no way to contact
the original manufacturer, as the company may no longer be in business.
Companies sometimes use reverse engineering to regain design data on their own long-
discontinued products. For example, a small company that has been in businesses for more than
40 years may have manufactured numerous products before the days of computer-aided design
and digital file storage. Consequently, these older products may be based on long-lost paper
blueprints. Through reverse engineering, companies can regain their lost designs and create
archives of their product legacy.
Even if the company still has their paper blueprints, they may want to create a digital
version of them to make the plans easier to access and use. The business could use certain
reverse engineering techniques to create this digital design file.
Among auto restoration specialists, reverse engineering is sometimes employed to
recreate the designs of engines and auto body parts for older vehicles. Using reverse
engineering to rebuild engines or recreate hard-to-find parts can make cars from the 1920s
through the 1950s drivable again. Thanks to reverse engineering, you could bring a classic
vehicle back to life and make it fully functional without changing the design of the car’s
systems.
Reverse engineering requires a series of steps to gather precise information on a
product’s dimensions. Once collected, you can store the data in digital archives. Often,
engineers will enhance the design with new developments and innovations. Sometimes, they
will replicate the original model exactly.
Benefits of reverse engineering

 Exploring existing products: Backward engineering allows you to explore products

that already exist. Evaluating the existing products in the market can result in
innovation and discovery.

 Recreating a product: One of the primary goals of reverse engineering is recreating a

product without using a blueprint. Using this process, companies can make an old and
outdated product, a less expensive version of a product, an obsolete machine part and a
competitor's product.

 Repairing existing products: Companies can repair an existing product using this
engineering technique. This can also help them identify common errors in a product's
design and learn how to fix those for future projects.

 Discovering product vulnerabilities: Companies can reverse engineer a new product

or its prototype as a test. Through this, they can learn about the product in new ways
and search for errors, inconsistencies or overall vulnerabilities.
 Inspiring innovation: Reverse engineering fosters innovation. It helps engineers
connect projects with previous knowledge and develop innovative ideas.
 Conducting failure analysis: You can use reverse engineering to analyse why a
product did not work as intended. Examining a faulty product through backward
engineering can help you identify its damaged parts and repair them.
 Performing competitor analysis: An organisation can reverse engineer a competitor's
product to understand how it differs from other products in the market.
 Reducing product development costs: By understanding how a competitor
manufactures a product, a company can develop cheaper alternative solutions.
When is Reverse Engineering Used
For manufacturers, reverse engineering is a critical process. When a company has limited
knowledge of an engineering part or when there is no two-dimensional (2D) or 3D model
available, reverse engineering can provide design information. Companies can use this
technique when replacement parts from an original equipment manufacturer are obsolete or
unavailable. Reverse engineering also helps optimise product assemblies and provides new and
added features. Manufacturers often use reverse engineering principles to improve a product.
Sometimes, companies use this engineering technique for building digital archives to create a
virtual environment for future references.
Where is reverse engineering used?
Various industries use this technique, including:
Automobile industry
The automobile industry uses backward engineering for:
 studying and analysing competitors
 digitalising parts of older vehicle models
 understanding problems and issues with existing automobiles
 developing replacement parts
Aerospace industry
The aerospace industry uses this technique for:
 developing maintenance parts of an aircraft
 adding, enhancing and fixing aircraft components
 conducting aerodynamic analysis
 manufacturing of tools.
Consumer goods industry
The consumer goods industry uses this engineering technique for:
 developing product prototypes
 analysing competitor's product
 testing and validating conceptual designs
 documenting different design iterations.
Steps for reverse engineering:

Here are five steps to reverse engineer a product:

1. Gather information

The first step in backward engineering is collecting information about the product. This might
mean measuring product dimensions, identifying source design and understanding the coding
of the device. Gathering information is essential for engineers, as it helps them know the
product well before deconstructing it.

2. Develop a model

After gathering information about the product or part, the engineers can create a sketch or
model of it. These models and sketches help them understand the purpose of the product's
design. Most engineers use computer-aided design (CAD) to create a three-dimensional model
of the product, as it helps them analyse every part of the product by viewing an accurate
representation of it.

3. Disassemble the product

After developing a model of the product and evaluating its design, the engineers disassemble
the product layer by layer. For easier reassembling, they usually organise the product parts in
the order that they dismantled those. As they remove each part, they analyse, measure or scan
the part or product to know its functionality and use.

4. Evaluate the product

After disassembling every part of the product, the engineers conduct product evaluations and
closely study the parts. They try to understand how to improve the product's quality or fix any
errors they found in it. Often, the reverse engineering team documents the essential findings of
their evaluation. They can even scan the tracing of the product to help them rebuild it in the
future.

5. Reassemble

If reverse engineering aims to rebuild the product, the engineers reassemble the product at this
stage. Rebuilding can help the engineers to test their knowledge of the product and allow them
to make changes to the product. This can help them create a new or updated version of the
original product. Reassembling often allows the engineers to learn more about the product so
that they can recreate it.
Tools for reverse engineering
Two commonly used tools for reverse engineering are:
Disassembler: This tool reads the binary code of a software product and displays the
executable instruction as text. Often, a developer uses a debugging program to prevent the
disassembler from disassembling the program's data.
CAD: Engineers use this tool when the original blueprint of the product's design is unavailable.
It primarily involves producing 3D images of the product or part that requires re-
manufacturing.
Examples of reverse engineering:
Software
A programmer can reverse engineer a software program to understand more about it. They can
create a new program based on the knowledge acquired from the reverse engineering process.
They can also use this technique for software that requires improvement and maintenance.
Though a computer program is not a tangible product, the reverse engineering process is
similar. A programmer can extract the different parts and codes of a software program to
understand its functionality and use.
Mechanical project
A mechanic can reverse engineer different products, including washing machines, vehicles or
air conditioning units. Without creating a new model, a mechanic can disassemble a non-
working part and find a viable solution. After finding a solution and fixing the malfunction,
they can rebuild the product.
Computer parts
Often, engineers use the backward engineering concept to understand the design of a computer
and its parts. An engineer can deconstruct a computer to replace an existing part with a new
part or run tests on a broken part. This is helpful for people who are new to building computers.
Network security assessment
Reverse engineering is an essential tool for companies that perform network security
assessments. In this process, companies divide their security team into two parts. One team
simulates attacks on software, while the other team monitors the network and reverse engineers
the attack by other team members. The information from the mock attacks can help strengthen
the security of a corporate network
Construction
In the construction industry, architects use the backward engineering technique to address a
specific challenge with the design of a building. Using large scanners, the engineer or architect
measures the 3D shape of the building or process plant. They can identify potential design
flaws and fix them based on this information.
RE-Generic Process:
Reverse engineering strategy must consider the following:
• Reason for reverse engineering of a part
• Number of parts to be scanned – single or multiple.
• Part size – large or small.
• Part complexity – simple or complex.
• Part material – hard or soft.
• Part finish – shiny or blurry
• Part geometry – cylindrical or prismatic and internal or external
• Accuracy required – linear or volumetric
The generic process of reverse engineering is a three-phase process shown in Figure 2. The
three phases are: scanning, point processing, and development for the particular application
specific geometric model
Scanning phase: This phase is connected with the scanning strategy. Its include: selecting the
correct scanning technique, preparing the part to be scanned, and performing the actual
scanning to capture information that describes all geometric features of the part such as steps,
slots, pockets, and holes.
Point processing phase: This phase involves importing the point cloud data, reducing the noise
in the data collected, and reducing the number of points. A wide range of commercial software
are available for point processing. The output of the point processing phase is a clean, merged,
point cloud data set in the most convenient format.
Application – Geometric model development phase: The generation of CAD models from
point data is probably the most complex activity within reverse engineering. Sophisticated
surface fitting algorithms are required in order to be generated surfaces that accurately
represent the three-dimensional information described within the point cloud data set.
Phase 1- Scanning/ Digitization of the object/Data Capturing
This phase is Involved with the scanning strategy
 Selecting the correcting Scanning technique.
 Preparing the part to be scanned, and •
 Performing the actual scanning to capture information that describes all geometric
features of the part such as steps, slots, pockets, and holes.

3D scanners are employed to scan the part geometry, producing clouds of points, which define
the surface geometry.
There are two distinct types of scanners, contact and noncontact
Phase-01: Scanning/ Digitization of the object/ Data Capturing
Contact Scanners:
 Employ contact probes that automatically follow the
contours of a physical surface
 Based on Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM)
technologies, with a tolerance range of +0.01 to 0.02 mm.
 The probes must deflect to register a point; hence, a degree
of contact pressure is maintained during the scanning
process.
 This contact pressure limits the use of contact devices for
soft, materials such as rubber cannot be easily or accurately
scanned.

Noncontact Scanners
 Capture data with no physical part contact.
 Use lasers, optics, and charge-coupled device (CCD) sensors to capture point data
 Can capture large amounts of data in a relatively short period of time,
 The typical tolerance of noncontact scanning is within ±0.025 to 0.2 mm.
 Some noncontact systems have problems generating data describing surfaces, which
are parallel to the axis of the laser
  Employ light within the data capture process. This creates problems when the light
imposes on shiny surfaces, and hence some surfaces must be prepared with a temporary
coating of fine powder before scanning.
Phase 2– Point Processing
It Involves
 importing the point cloud data,
 reducing the noise in the data collected, and
 reducing the number of points.
 Allows us to merge multiple scan data sets. Sometimes, it is necessary to take
multiple scans of the part to ensure that all required features have been scanned.
 This involves rotating the part; hence each scan datum becomes very crucial.
 Multiple scan planning has direct impact on the point processing phase. Good datum
planning for multiple scanning will reduce the effort required in the point processing
phase and also avoid introduction of errors from merging multiple scan data.
 Software packages are generally needed for point processing.
• Simplify the data
• Polygon meshing
• Polygon editing
Phase 3– Application Geometric Model Development
 The generation of CAD models from point data
 This phase depends very much on the real purpose for reverse engineering.
 For example, if we scanned a broken injection moulding tool to produce a new tool, we
would be interested in the geometric model and also in the ISO G code data that can be
used to produce a replacement tool in the shortest possible time.
 One can also use reverse engineering to analyze “as designed” to “as manufactured”.
 This involves importing the as designed CAD model and superimposing the scanned
point cloud data set of the manufactured part.
 The RE software allows the user to compare the two data sets (as designed to as
manufactured). This process is also used for inspecting manufactured parts.
• Defining surface boundaries
• Applying NURBS
• Exporting the data
Rapid Prototyping in combination with RE
 A group of techniques to quickly fabricate a scale model of a physical part or assembly
using 3D CAD data
 Integration of reverse engineering and rapid prototyping is being used for getting
product to the market quickly by resolving a long-standing conflict between design and
manufacturing
 Levels of Analysis in Reverse Engineering
 System-Wide Analysis
 Subsystem Dissection Analysis
 Individual Component Analysis
System-Wide Analysis
 Customer Requirements
 Engineering Requirements
 Functional Specifications
 Prediction of Subsystems and Components
Subsystem Dissection Analysis
 Document Disassembly
 Define Subsystems
 Determine Subsystem Functional Specifications
 Determine Subsystem Physical/Mathematical Principles
Individual Component Analysis
 Repeat Dissection Steps to Individual Component
 Define Component Material Selection and Fabrication Process
 Suggest Alternative Designs, Systems, Components, and Materials