| Summary: | This paper presents reverse engineering (RE) of a complex
automobile structural part, B-pillar. As a major part of the automobile
body-in white (BiW), B-pillar has substantial opportunity for weight
reduction by introducing variable thickness across its sections. To leverage
such potential, an existing B-pillar was reverse engineered with a 3D
optical scanner and computer aided design (CAD) application. First, digital
data (i.e. in meshes) of exiting B-pillar was obtained by the scanner, and
subsequently, this information was utilized in developing a complete 3D
CAD model. CATIA V5 was used in the modeling where some of the
essential work benches were ‘’Digitized Shape Editor’’, ‘’Quick Surface
Reconstruction’’, ‘’Wireframe and Surface Design’’, ‘’Freestyle’’,
‘’Generation Shape Design’’ and “Part design”. In the final CAD design,
five different thicknesses were incorporated successfully in order to get a
B-pillar with non-uniform sections. This research opened opportunities for
thickness optimization and mold tooling design in real time manufacturing.
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