Reverse Engineering

Objective and Measuring Object

Container for washing detergents, cleaning agents, beverages, cosmetics and many more – bottles, caps, design models, tools and moulds are precisely captured down to the tiniest detail in very small quantities of one or two pieces.

The digitisation process offers a double benefit. One of them is the aspect of tool inspection and quality: by digitising an already produced bottle, the CAD data generated by the reverse engineering process can be compared against the original product or tool data (also in CAD format) to perform a quality inspection on the product, and if considered necessary to implement appropriate adjustments on the tooling mould. The other aspect is that older tools which do not yet exist as CAD data set can be made available in a digital format for future production or archiving.

Measuring System and Set-Up

In this particular case study, essential scanning requirements are a very precise edge sharpness as well as a high level resolution of the bottle thread area – the ideal task for the Breuckmann high performance measuring system smartSCAN ^3D-HE. For a mostly automatic digitisation process, the scanner is additionally equipped with the special turn / tilt device turntiltUNIT-15 (optionally available). In order to ensure a defined
surface area for the projection of the fringe pattern by the scanning sensor, the
semi-transparent plastic bottles are mattened with a special satin spray prior
to the digitisation.

Workflow

The time-consuming procedure of affixing reference markers can be omitted: the scanning process is started directly; the highly precise data are generated swiftly and reliably, making them available for further processing. During the scanning process, firstly the individual scans are automatically aligned with the aid of the Breuckmann OPTOCAT software and merged into a uniform polygon mesh. In a second step, the generated data are loaded into a special reverse engineering software. The workflow
in detail:

1. Preparation

• Matting the object and mounting the turn / tilt unit turntiltUNIT-15.
  
  

2. Digitisation and Data Evaluation

• Using the turntiltUNIT-15, the measurement process is automated.
• Digital spatial measurement of the object using the smartSCAN ^3D-HE
  digitising system.
• Evaluation of the object geometry and visualisation: the generated point
  cloud is converted into a polygon mesh.
• Transfer of the 3D data to the reverse engineering software.
  
  

3. Reverse Engineering

• High-quality reverse engineering procedures are performed on the basis of
  poly meshes (cross-linked point clouds).
• Variance analysis: the CAD data generated from the digitisation are compared
  with the original CAD data of the bottle.
• Adjustment to the mould tool.
  
  

Results and Conclusion

Despite processing vast amounts of data, a fast and efficient workflow is guaranteed thanks to a mostly automated digitisation process. The interpretation of the measuring results is directly passed back into the manufacturing process, thus immediately serving as valuable input towards the enhancement of the production efficiency ... and in the end result to the overall value and quality of the many different plastic products made by the ALPLA-WERKE.

Klemens Bösch (Head of Product Design, ALPLA Technical Center, Hard) is highly pleased with this process: „Thanks to the sophisticated method of high-resolution 3D digitisation, we are able to provide our clients with highly precise three-dimensional data representations of existing and new product designs as well as to pre-process them for the development of mould tools and future production.

The powerful combination for efficient tool optimisation of the various moulding types produced at the ALPLA-WERKE: state of the art 3D digitisation technology, the
high performance smartSCAN 3D-HE digitisation and measuring system developed
by Breuckmann plus a competent and professional project management by
Units Engineering.“