The historic automotive industry is stronger than ever with an estimated £5.5 billion generated over the last year and an increase of 27.9% over the past five years.
The average use of historic vehicles has also increased; it was estimated at just 288 miles a year per car in 2011 versus a recent survey that found the current use to be 1124 miles per year. This is great news for an industry that employs nearly 35000 people.
But with many of these vehicles being produced by companies that have ceased trading, this poses its own challenges with the continued need for replacement parts and tooling to keep these vehicles maintained, safe and on the road. Many of these items were produced using manufacturing methods that are no longer practiced or designs that have been lost or damaged over the decades.
This poses a real problem for the older and rarer examples. In particular historic motorsport where the vehicles would have been designed as one off's with the sole intention of going as fast as possible and the life expectancy was only to make it to the end of the race.
This is why more and more people are turning to companies like Qualis Engineering that combine conventional tactile measurements with contactless optical scans to provide a re-engineered solution.
You may have seen some of this technology recently demonstrated on the motoring TV show 5th gear on QUEST, which saw Jimmy De Ville being given a demonstration of Creaform's handheld laser scanning equipment, the Metrascan.
The process begins by scanning the surfaces of the item that requires re-engineering and making any tactile measurements that are key to the operation of the item. This then gives us the information required to remodel the item, usually in the form of a mesh model, this is a series of polygons used to connect the point cloud data captured by the scanner, a very complicated dot to dot.
It is then over to the engineering team to use this mesh model and any associated information to extract design intent and give the scanned surfaces depth and texture resulting in a CAD model.
This CAD model can then be used for modern day manufacturing methods such as Casting, 5 axis CNC machining and 3D printing to recreate a functional item that carries all the same qualities as the original.
If you have any questions regarding our reverse engineering and 3D laser scanning services in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Milton Keynes and the Midlands, please get in touch.
info@qualisengineering.co.uk
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