3D reverse engineering – from the a defective impeller to production

High level reverse engineering provided by PME Pumpen-und Modelltechnik GmbH Erfurt

with Mesh2Surface for Solidworks.

Mesh2Surface for Solidworks once again proves its capability to do 3d scanning reverse engineering in a very easy and efficient way. Here is our case study showing our customer PME using our tools to remodel a defective impeller and prepare it for production.

PME was founded in 1888 under the name “Deutsche Automat Pumpen Fabrik”. The company demonstrates a high level of competence in pump technology, which is why you might call
them a premium builder for pump construction.
In addition to various cast products, their range of services includes model making and on demand
manufacturing, making mainly pumps and retrofitting, which means modernization and
optimization of existing systems, reengineering and remodeling.

A current practical example of 3d reverse engineering:
The accident of a pump collision of the impeller with the wear plate left 70kg of undocumented gunmetal, because there were no drawings, no production documents, or even CAD models for the old part.

For the production of the urgently needed replacement impeller, the deformed part was first
3d scanned and the resulting mesh model was converted into a production relevant 3D model
with Mesh2Surface for Solidworks.

For reengineering, PME uses Mesh2Surface for Solidworks, a reverse engineering add-in for
Solidworks that converts 3D scan meshes into CAD models. Mesh2Surface offers efficient tools
to generate surfaces and curves to support the reconstruction of a professional CAD model.

The impeller was scanned
with 0.5mm point spacing.
Result: 9 million triangles,
450 MB data set.

With Mesh2Surface, the amount of data was reduced by 50%
with sufficient accuracy.

Section through the network
model made with Mesh2Surface with digitized edges and adapted in a Solidworks sketch.

Final 3D CAD model.

Data analysis comparison of
3D model against the reference mesh to check the design goals.

The exact reconstruction and additional optimization of the impeller based on the damaged
parts was possible in a short time with the use of Mesh2Surface for SolidWorks. Conventional
measuring techniques such as calipers or coordinate measuring machines would have provided
only incomplete data to describe the complex 3D model.

A FREE trial version of Mesh2Surface can be downloaded here: https://mesh2surface.com