Reverse Engineering of Parts with Asymmetrical Properties Using Replacement Materials

Reverse engineering (RE) aims at the reproduction of products following a detailed examination of their construction or composition. Nowadays, industrial applications of RE were boosted by combining it with additive manufacturing. Printing of reverse-engineered elements has become an option particularly when spare parts are needed. In this paper, a case study was presented that explains how such an approach can be implemented in the case of products with asymmetric mechanical properties and using replacement materials. In this case study, a reverse engineering application was conducted on a textile machine spare part. To this end, the nearest material was selected to the actual material selection and some mechanical tests were made to validate it. Next, a replacement part was designed by following the asymmetric push-in pull-out characteristic. Finally, the finite element analysis with Additive Manufacturing was combined and validated experimentally.