Part Buyers Authority Issue #4

Mining, the pumping of water, and agricultural uses are some of the oldest industrial applications. These industries are the home to literally thousands of years of castings. Companies who supply cast parts for pumps, mining, and agriculture have collections of drawings, patterns and tooling that date back, in some cases, for centuries. There are companies that measure the value of the patterns they are warehousing in the billions. Many of these components must be replaced with an exact duplicate, in others there exist opportunities to enhance the solution by using new designs or alloys. For castings that were made so long ago, there are frequently lost patterns, drawings, etc – and the only thing left is the casting that needs to be replaced. In the case of paper, mining, and wastewater – these parts may be very large, and they may need to be manufactured in advance of failure. 3D Scanning, and Reverse Engineering Services have therefore flourished, and there are many well documented case studies showing the standard applications of scanning patterns to reverse engineer them when CAD isn’t available, and for scanning castings to reverse engineer replacements. The steady evolution of technology has brought CMM quality 3D scanning and the software tools into price ranges where foundries can (and many already have) purchase them. Data acquisition of a pattern board, for something like a Hunter machine, can be 4 or 5 minutes with a very affordable system. These tools can be used for tasks such as: • Archiving old-obsolete patterns • Inspection of patterns prior to use, or for wear during long runs • Documentation and quantification of surface defects, shrinkage porosity, hot tearing, etc. • Inspection of other equipment, evaluation of corrosion, wear, machining defects, etc. Full inspection of first articles with 3D Scanning, comparing scan data directly to CAD sets a production facility up so that they can perform Scan-to-CAD QC on future production parts. Foundries have reported up to 75% reduction of inspection costs by making the switch to 3D scanning tools. 4 PART BUYERS A U T H R I T Y WILLIAM SHAMBLEY President, NEW ENGLAND FOUNDRY TECHNOLOGIES FOREWAR The Importance of 3D Scanning and Reverse Engineering FOR PUMPS AND MINING