<title>Reverse engineering and rapid prototyping for solid free-form fabrication</title>

Abstract

Computed tomography (CT) systems have the ability to rapidly and nondestructively scan parts and extract part contours, independent of material type and/or surface condition. Under the correct conditions, these part contours are dimensionally correct and can be used to extract metrological information suitable for determining dimensional conformance or creating files readable by computer-aided-design (CAD) systems. Important CT-assisted reverse engineering and part characterization capabilities are being developed by ARACOR for the Advanced Research Projects Administration (ARPA) to support its solid freeform fabrication (SFF) initiative. SFF refers to the machine capability to convert an electronic master of a part into a solid object of near-net shape without part-specific tooling or other specialized operator intervention. Application software specific to advanced composite materials in general, and ceramic materials in particular, is being developed for the SFF program. The new software will run on a variety of common workstation platforms, accept data from different CT scanners, and output results in various formats to support a variety of engineering and manufacturing needs. An overview of CT-to-CAD technology is presented, and work in progress relevant to emerging aerospace composites is reported.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.