Inspection services: reverse engineering
Project challenges
When the rail fleet is inspected, they rely on photographs to direct operators to inspection locations, and this typically leads to confusion in determining the required location.
Business challenge
Process Innovation
Sector
Road & Rail
Technology or capability
Metrology & NDT
Digital Manufacturing
Process Design
The Challenge
Transport for London’s rail fleet was initially manufactured before CAD models were commonplace. Any proposed design changes have to be made from scratch with no ability to rely on previous information.
When the rail fleet is inspected, they rely on photographs to direct operators to inspection locations, and this typically leads to confusion in determining the required location.
Transport for London asked the MTC if there was any way to capture their existing train in a digital format so they had an accurate model to edit with any future modifications, and which can be used in new inspection instructions to minimise confusion during inspection.
MTC's Solution
The MTC used their Reverse Engineering process, which is the scanning of a component or asset using a measurement system, creating a digital mesh of the component and then converting the mesh into a fully functional CAD model.
Through Reverse Engineering legacy or existing components can be readily converted into models or drawings that reduce the lead time for further manufacturing operations.
This project was not only fun to complete, but greatly aided the customer by providing an accurate model that they can use to underpin their inspection regime and also simplify any future design modifications they wish to make.
Liam Bradley-Smith, Technical Specialist, MTC
The Outcome
- Four London Underground rail cars were scanned using a Leica P40 large volume point cloud scanning system.
- The collected data was then converted into a polygonised mesh by the MTC.
- The MTC produced a functional 3D CAD model of the rail cars to the specification required by Transport for London.
- Transport for London updated their inspection instructions with the new model so they more accurately represented the target areas in the rail cars and confusion was removed from their inspection.
Benefits to the Client
Transport for London now have an accurate model of their current fleet that they can use for any future design modifications.
Scanning and modelling the entire rail car was substantially faster than creating future modifications via drawing alone and created better accuracy than photographs for their inspection operators to navigate target locations in the rail cars.
Transport for London were able to use the model for other applications including but not limited to: visualization in a 3D environment, virtual clash detection with tunnel infrastructure and for training personnel without the need for them to go in or underneath rail cars, which has an inherent associated risk.
