Success Stories

After changes in the GTS rules for the 2003 world famous Le Mans 24 hour race, Veloqx Prodrive Racing were faced with a mandatory reduction in engine power. This rule change, combined with an increase in competition for this year’s race, meant that any possible improvements in the aerodynamic performance of the rear wing, primarily drag reduction, would play a major role in the success of the car.

Given that the project was outlined in early March and with race day fast approaching, there were very few opportunities remaining for actual testing. In fact there was only sufficient time for one wing design to be tested prior to the pre-qualifying event in May. (More...)

Military hardware is aging fast.

In some cases, it’s older than the soldiers who use it. Spare parts are required to keep this equipment running, but many of the companies that supplied the parts have long left the business, and drawings and documentation may no longer exist. Reverse-engineering firms have stepped in to recreate the parts using the latest computerized numerical control machinery, and laser scanning systems offer them performance benefits.

One approach to reverse engineering is to use a coordinate measuring machine to produce a model of a new or used part. The machine employs motors operating through ball screws to provide three axes of linear motion. The operator moves the probe to a point that he or she wishes to measure, and rotary encoders determine the position of each axis with a high degree of accuracy. This method offers some positive results, but it is not without its drawbacks. (More...)

By replacing a seat inspection system based on templates with a laser scanning approach, Johnson Controls saved $60,000 in template costs and reduced validation time for PT Cruiser seats from almost four months to three weeks. Building 24 sets of templates to test all the possible seat configurations for this vehicle would have taken three months.

Testing 270 seats, the number required by DaimlerChrysler, would have taken another three weeks. Instead, the quality department opted to capture seat contours using a laser scanner. The cost and three-month delay for building templates was avoided, and the scanner captured 3D coordinate data for all 270 seats in only three weeks. "The main benefit of using the scanner was the time savings since we had to delay production until the testing was completed," says Rosa Leyva, division quality manager at Johnson Controls' Toluca, Mexico Comfortseat operation. "But the scanner also gives more accurate information, which we are using to establish manufacturing tolerances."(More...)

Evernham Motorsports is using NVision's hand held laser scanning system to develop its race cars more quickly by allowing the team to document even the smallest changes to the body design. The major components of the Model-Maker system are a 3-D laser sensor, a mechanical digitizer on which the sensor is attached, a PC, and software that extracts, displays, and manipulates the data.

In automobile racing, where as little as 1/100th of a second difference in lap time can mean the difference between first and second place, slight variations in body design have a huge impact on performance. Teams work hard to optimize the car's shape for the best aerodynamics, but until recently, they had no way of precisely documenting that shape. (More...)

At Jerry Fain Models (Bedford, TX), the problem was time.

The company provides prototyping, modeling and reverse engineering services for a variety of manufacturing markets. Critical to the business is the ability to accurately measure models that are provided by customers and to inspect parts produced by the company’s machinists in order to ensure that they are dimensionally accurate.

For these tasks, the company has long used a portable, laser-based coordinate measuring machine (CMM). But limitations of this unit are that it captures data points one at a time, and that the operator must manually move the steering system to track each point to be measured.

'The time required to perform this task makes it impractical to completely reverse engineer anything beyond relatively simple components and assemblies," says Cris Runge, scanning and reverse engineering manager at the firm. (More...)

Switching from a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) and height gauges to a laser scanner has substantially reduced the time required for reverse engineering while improving accuracy at Boeing's Phantom Works facility in St. Louis, according to David Skiles, Rapid Prototype Development Technician. Reverse engineering, producing a CAD model from a physical product, is important in cases where modifications are to be made to an older aircraft as well as other situations. In the past, the most common approach was using a CMM to measure data points on the surface of the aircraft, which was time-consuming and provided limited accuracy. Laser scanning, on the other hand, generates a far greater number of data points, which improves accuracy, in less time. " Using special surfacing software, scanned data can be used to create a CAD surface model of the part that is accurate to within 0.0012 inch to sheet metal surfaces and 0.0002 inch for hole position," Skiles said. (More...)

Reverse engineering plays a significant role at Priority Designs of Columbus, OH, because we are often assigned the task of taking old products and making them function better or meet the needs of a new application. And we do this for customers who make everything from sporting goods to plumbing wares.

One recent example was a project for a manufacturer of protective eyewear for lacrosse players. Priority Designs took on the job of designing the new eyewear last year and was faced with the challenge of reverse engineering a head form model that was provided by the client. The model was based on the target market for which the eyewear would be manufactured. (More...)

The differences between motor racing on two wheels and four go far deeper than just arithmetic. In Formula 1, for instance, races are routinely won and lost in the pits; on motorbikes, the archaic practice of overtaking is still regularly reported. It is behind the scenes, however – away from the cameras – that the real differences between the two sports really emerge. (More...)