RAPID DEVELOPMENT OF PRESSER FOOT BASE PRODUCTS: A REVERSE ENGINEERING APPROACH

Abstract

The worn-out of different components of textile machines can conduct to deterioration or even failure, which may have a negative impact on their effectiveness. If such spare parts can not be found on the market, a possibility of their redesign and manufacture is the use of a reverse engineering approach. In order to apply reverse engineering, the points cloud that defines the physical part must be first obtained. The points cloud of the real part is then transferred to a dedicated redesign program to redesign the 3D model of the piece. Finally, the redesigned part is manufactured using rapid prototyping techniques. The aim of this paper is to present the application of a reverse engineering approach for the redesign and manufacture of the presser foot base for sewing machines. The Shining 3D Scanner was used to scan the part, and the redesign of the part was achieved using the ShiningForm XOR software. The part was manufactured using the Inspire 200 3D printer, and the quality inspection of the manufactured part was carried out using the ShiningForm XOV software. The use of the reverse engineering approach allows the rapid development of parts with complex geometry, acceptable quality and relatively lower manufacturing costs.

Keywords

• reverse engineering
• textile machines components
• digitization
• rapid prototyping
• quality inspection