Understanding Metal Additive Manufacturing - 1 — Lesson 3

This lesson covers the third part of the course on metal additive manufacturing, focusing on reverse engineering. It delves into the process, stages, and justification of reverse engineering. The lesson also provides a laboratory demonstration of a Steinbichler Comet 3D 5 M scanner, explaining its operation and the scanning process. It further discusses the importance of 3D scanning in digital manufacturing and the use of software like Geo-magic design X for reverse engineering. The lesson uses a 3D scanning specimen object to illustrate the scanning process, data acquisition, alignment, and mesh generation.

Video Highlights

00:30 - Explanation of contact and non-contact scanners
06:21 - Explanation of the scanning process with different orientations
10:24 - Explanation of the data acquisition and alignment process
17:10 - Explanation of the global meshing process
26:21 - Explanation of the global optimization process

Key Takeaways

- Reverse engineering is a legitimate and legal technology used in metal additive manufacturing.
- The Steinbichler Comet 3D 5 M scanner can record 5 billion points per second, making it a powerful tool for 3D scanning.
- The scanning process involves cleaning the object, adjusting the scanner's alignment, and capturing the object's data.
- The data from the scanning process is used to create a digital model of the object, which is crucial for digital manufacturing.
- Software like Geo-magic design X is used for reverse engineering, which involves creating a 3D CAD model from the scanned object.