Page 56 - MetalForming February 2013
P. 56

  Tooling Technology
Moving Forward with
Reverse Engineering
Here’s how a Michigan toolmaker
has brought life back to damaged equipment shipped home from the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Industrial Experimental Technologies (IET), Auburn Hills, MI, thrives on bringing old parts back into service, even when design documentation or drawings are lacking. Customers often come to the company with urgent problems that require the delivery of immediate solutions in a very short timeframe.
“We often work with a customer through an iterative process of developing the product, while in parallel trying to come up with the die design,” says IET program manager Chris Knighton. “Our software (from Cimatron) enables us to quickly modify a part model and have the die-design changes flow right through, allowing us to save a tremendous amount of time.”
Among its production capabilities: CNC machining, milling and turning; stamping and forming; three- and five-axis laser cutting; direct metal laser sintering; casting and forging; hydroforming; and tool and fixture design and production.
A Call from the Army
For a recent U.S. Army project, IET received shipments of vehi- cle parts that had been blown up in Iraq and Afghanistan. The need: Reverse-engineer and manufacture replacement parts.
“If the right side of the vehicle was destroyed, they’d send us the left-side components so that we could reverse-engi- neer and create fenders, doors, axle components and other parts,” says Knighton. “They didn’t have the drawings or 3D data, so we performed reverse engineering and then cast and machined the parts to provide a complete solution.”
Similarly, the firm has worked with Rolls Royce to create replacement parts for old jet engines that are still in service, some of them 50 years old. And yet another challenging project involved redesign of a GM S10 pickup truck. Here, IET
Industrial Experimental Technologies thrives on bringing old parts back into service, even when design documentation or drawings are lacking. Shown is the company’s fabrication department, which, among other processes, performs three- and five-axis laser cutting and direct metal laser sintering.
converted the vehicle from a two-door to four-door cab, including the redesign of 122 unique parts.
Timing is of the Essence
The ability to quickly create and modify a solid model is crucial for the reverse-engineering process. “We’ll take the part, model it in Cimatron and machine it,” says Knighton. “We’ll go back to the solid model for any necessary changes until we get the part perfectly right. If we didn’t have software that is easy and quick to use, we would be spending a lot of time making these changes.”
Many of the projects IET is tasked with are on a tight schedule. Customers of such projects don’t look for a supplier to do just part of the job, they want one supplier to develop
 54 MetalForming/February 2013
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