International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The aim of the work was to digitize an automotive component using reverse engineering. To apply the procedures by which an automotive component can be designed. Reverse engineering belongs in the field of innovation among the first established knowledgeintensive services. Together with the advancing development of technology and utilizing of 3D scanning, the reverse engineering is becoming an important tool for accelerating the product innovation cycles and increasing the potential of lean approach and agility of development processes in Product Design. The paper illustrates the possibilities of using and experience with these tools on examples of the scanning of the geometry of the selected automotive components.

The paper is focused on composite materials with a polymer thermosetting matrix reinforced with long (continuous) fibers. These materials offer their specific properties that can be used in various areas of industry. From this point of view, polymer mat rix composites are, due to their mechanical properties and low weight, the most promising material for use in various application solutions. However, their disadvantage is the high price, which is higher than the price of conventionally used materials. The method of production of components from composite materials itself requires precisely specified technological procedures, which differs slightly from the traditionally used methods of component production, e.g. of metal materials.

The paper presents the possibilities of using reverse engineering in the digitization of automotive components and their modification. A CAD model of the part was created based on the scanned point clouds. Subsequently, this model was compared with the original cloud points. The point clouds were scanned by a laser 3D scanner in PolyWorks software. The reference 3D model was created from a point cloud in the CATIA program. The comparison of the scanned point cloud and the reference model is performed in PolyWorks. The Check IMAlign project module is used for this. This module allows you to compare the scanned point cloud, it is merged from several scanned lines into one whole point cloud, which are created by a CAD model. The preparation of the 3D scanning arm FARO PLATINUM ARM and the process of scanning the prototype of the front fender of the car are described.