Reverse Engineering -

Reverse engineering of Injection Moulding Tools

Measuring with the GOM ATOS

Customer requirement:

The order was the measurement of an injection mould and the parametric structure of the corresponding CAD model. The CAD model should be fully parametric and further processable for the customer to enable the production of the further developed tool.

For the injection process, both halves are pressed against each other with great force by two holders. The cavities between the halves form the shape of the later part. Now hot plastic is injected into these cavities under high pressure. Once the plastic has solidified, the halves are separated from each other and the part can be removed. In this case, there were twelve cavities per mould, which were arranged in a circle around the plastic feed.

Since the previous mould served as the basis for further development, the method of reverse engineering was chosen for data generation with the required precision.

CAD data can still be modified afterwards. Furthermore, the 3D model offers the preference to optimally adapt the design of the new injection mould to the required functionality.

Measuring task:

Very high speeds are achieved when processing yarns in spinning machines. The guidance of these yarns through ring and runner during winding onto the spindles is considered a critical point in the manufacturing process.

Accordingly, the rings and runners are of extraordinary importance as individual components in the combination of all components of a spinning machine. In order to take this fact into account, the manufacturer is constantly advancing the development of these components.

Studies have shown that the operational reliability and availability of spinning machines can be further increased by optimizing the runners. Finally, the intelligent use of existing resources made it possible to integrate already existing material in the design of the further developed runner tools. The existing tools only had to be changed in a few places to meet the new requirements.

However, since these tools represented the latest state of a practically oriented development, it was first necessary to generate the corresponding CAD data. With the help of a scan camera and the polygonal model as a basis for the reverse engineering process, a parametric 3D solid model was created.

 

Result

The generated 3D model based on the existing tool is a fully-fledged design result. The component geometry can be modified afterwards due to the parametric structure of the CAD data, which gives the customer long-term modelling possibilities.

Furthermore, the customer can use the 3D model created to optimally adapt the design of the new injection mould to the required functionality.

 

"Our requirements for optimizing the injection mould require a precise 3D model based on scan data. With the solution offered by sigma3D GmbH, this has been optimally achieved.

- Reiners + Fürst GmbH u. Co. KG, Jürgen Smekal, Project Manager -