This paper presents reverse engineering (RE) of a complexudautomobile structural part, B-pillar. As a major part of the automobileudbody-in white (BiW), B-pillar has substantial opportunity for weightudreduction by introducing variable thickness across its sections. To leverageudsuch potential, an existing B-pillar was reverse engineered with a 3Dudoptical scanner and computer aided design (CAD) application. First, digitaluddata (i.e. in meshes) of exiting B-pillar was obtained by the scanner, andudsubsequently, this information was utilized in developing a complete 3DudCAD model. CATIA V5 was used in the modeling where some of theudessential work benches were ‘’Digitized Shape Editor’’, ‘’Quick SurfaceudReconstruction’’, ‘’Wireframe and Surface Design’’, ‘’Freestyle’’,ud‘’Generation Shape Design’’ and “Part design”. In the final CAD design,udfive different thicknesses were incorporated successfully in order to get audB-pillar with non-uniform sections. This research opened opportunities forudthickness optimization and mold tooling design in real time manufacturing.
展开▼
