Scanning drawbar & yoke assembly with Artec Eva.
From replacement parts and legacy components to Hollywood movie props, 3D technologies are offering countless industries a fast and effective method of reverse engineering.
Construction machine and spare part manufacturer, Assan ASP based in Turkey, recently used 3D scanning and conventional machining to retrofit two independent parts for a piece of construction equipment in rapid time. Working with Teknodizayn, an Artec 3D Gold Partner, the team used the Artec Eva handheld 3D scanner to produce accurate 3D models of both a drawbar & yoke, and circle assemblies.
Typically difficult to measure accurately, replicating such large parts (approximately 3 metres) would usually take Assan ASP around two weeks to complete. With 3D scanning, they were able to capture each part in detail in less than 40 minutes.
“As we know, Artec 3D scanners are the best to use in situations where there is a big part that needs to be scanned in a location where conditions are difficult. This was exactly this kind of situation,” says Ali Can Boysan, Sales & Technical Support Manager at Teknodizayn.
.stl model of circle assembly in Artec Studio 11.
Once scanning was complete, Ali transferred the data for post-processing in Artec Studio 11 3D imaging software, which took around 4-5 hours due to the sheer volume of data. The data was processed manually by first removing unnecessary parts and aligning scans using a quick, point-to-point alignment algorithm. Then Global Registration with Texture and Geometry was applied, which resulted in a dense and accurate point cloud that needed to be meshed. The next step was to use Sharp Fusion with the best possible resolution to create .stl mesh models, which were then exported to Geomagic Design X for reverse engineering.
“This is no doubt the best, fastest and easiest program among its competitors,” Ali commented. “Our reverse engineering specialist first auto-regioned the parts and then aligned them to coordinate planes. Later he parametrically drew the solid models accurately, feature by feature. After 7-8 hours of working on each part, the solid models were ready to be manufactured directly.”
Drawbar & yoke assembly in Geomagic Design X.
The parts were milled anew to the exact specifications and installed and tested on a working construction machine. After the success of this project, Assan ASP plans to use the technology in future R&D with its own Artec Eva, Space Spider 3D scanners and Geomagic software.
