Reverse engineering for aerospace toolmaker
1 min read
Tower Tool Company, a specialist subcontracting toolmaker, has used state-of-the-art white light scanning equipment from Leicestershire-based Phase Vision to reduce cost and save time in the reverse engineering of a key aerospace component.
The toolmaker was commissioned by Meggitt Polymer Solutions to reverse engineer a new tool from a CAD model of a helicopter component.
Once the tool was designed, Tower Tool were keen to verify its accuracy against the existing CAD model. Key to this was developing a highly accurate representation of the new tool, for which Tower Tool investigated a number of methods.
The use of a co-ordinate measurement machines (CMM) was discounted because of the inability of CMMs to measure more than one point at a time, meaning it would have taken days or even weeks to create an accurate CAD representation of the tool.
Laser scanning was also considered and while speed was not an issue, there were concerns over the accuracy of the results produced.
However, by employing the Phase Vision Quartz range of white light scanners, speed and accuracy were combined, delivering a set of readings within a few minutes which created a highly accurate CAD model of the new tool.
Myles Ball of Tower Tool commented: "While the cost of the component was not enormous – about £500 – accuracy was key as it was to be used in a state-of-the-art aerospace application. We couldn't afford to wait for accurate readings from a CMM and weren't convinced by laser scanning either – but the Phase Vision equipment delivered on both speed and accuracy and allowed us to prove that our new tool was in line with the CAD requirements."
