Back To Basics: 5 Categories Of Awesome Reverse Engineering Tools To Know About In 2021!

Reverse engineering (RE) is quite a techie mouthful to pronounce; with us here at CAV Tools, you already know it means tearing down a mechanical part or machine and understanding how it works to replicate it with modifications. Well – not always a machine – can be software too, but we’re the mech guys here. Dies and casts, unique and obsolete parts you’d want cheaply fabricated, or just custom blueprints, or 3D designs; we have the equipment to tear down your chunk of hardware and render it in 3D for newer hardware!

RE sounds fantastic, and you might imagine some nerd with an additive printing rig, CNC, and CAD tools on a dingy workstation punching numbers, but it’s pretty complex. Run a web search, and you’ll mostly find reverse software because reversing is more like a technique than a physical tool. We want to indulge you in some tools/techniques that we know of that are the rage in reverse engineering. Just thought you 3D aficionados might like a heads up!

1. Teardown Tools

There are many ways to tear down a product. CAV Tools mainly deals in legacy products, machines, and cost teardowns, and our tools are your usual hardware drivers and wrenches with an occasional hammer. Of course, sensitive machine parts get delicate treatment while being taken apart. Every bit gets documented and verified as per origin, make, model, components, and composition.

2. Capture Tools

With the preliminary documentation over, we come to sensor technology to capture precise dimensions of the part’s constituents so they can be transferred into CAD software. GOM-3D is a popular structured light scanning system used in RE projects. Where the composition of a machine part is unclear, spectroscopic analysis helps discern the kind of alloy used accurately. Where possible, physical measurements are made, and tensile tests are carried out to find the original machine’s structural weaknesses.

3. Refining Tools

Decades ago, engineers pried apart everything, fabricated a duplicate, and refined by trial and error until they got it right. Now we have CAD, MATLAB, Ansys, and Augmented Reality. Just scan the part and take it for a rough ride in a simulated digital environment where you can test for all sorts of weaknesses and add enhancements.

4. Manufacturing Tools

Apart from the usual extrusion, rolling, wiring of metal alloys to manufacture new parts, laser remelting, alloying, cladding are popular ways to engineer repairs in legacy parts. Dies are fabricated for cast jobs, and then CNC takes over when a finish to specifications is required. Components are manufactured and assembled. These tools are conventional additive and subtractive manufacturing types.

5. Testing Tools

With a prototype ready, quality assessment and assurance steps in for troubleshooting and benchmarking the assembled part. SPC Software instructs on calibration, and in case of failure on passing QA, the project gets scrapped, everyone goes back to the tool called “drawing board.”

Are you a resident of Kansas City? Do you have that itch to dabble in RE projects? Maybe you need a carburetor fabricated for your vintage muscle car? CAV Tools are at your service!

For free quotes, do drop by our website. We deal in process manufacture, CAD, RE, and custom fabrication jobs across Kansas. You dictate, and we’ll create!

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