Scansite Case Study #119...

Indusrial CAT scanning of an aircraft cargo door hinge, structual analysis and re-manufacturing.

Problems and Opportunities:
A hinge from a cargo door of a commercial aircraft was provided by the client. The hinge had been out of production for several years. The client wanted to analyze the part for structural adequacy and to manufacture new parts. Capture of internal geometry was required.

Downstram Application:
A watertight iges128 file was required for export to ProEngineer. Finite Element Analysis would be done on the part file and alterations made, including strengthening weak points.

This type of "watertight" iges128 file could be imported into almost any downstream application, including ProEngineer, SolidWorks, SolidEdge, MechanicalDesktop, Catia, SDRC IDEAS, SurfCam, MasterCam, DelCam, FeatureCam, Alias, SoftImage, 3DStudioMax, Maya, FormZ, Imageware, Rhino, and many more....

Solution:

1. The original hinge was scanned on an industrial CAT scanner. (image courtesy of Aracor>>www.aracor.com) 2. The CAT scan data as a polgonized mesh (.stl format) 3. Here the polygon mesh has been digitally "cut" in order to show the internal geometry. 4. A Nurbs surface (iges128) CAD model was created for export to ProEengineer. This screen shot shows the displacement map. 5. The Nurbs surface has been interrogated for fidelity with the polygonized mesh and a color map generated. All Nurbs patch areas shown as grey are within .01mm (.0004 inches) of the polygonized mesh. Advantages:  This hinge represents a common problem. The parts was first manufactured 35 years ago. There are no 3-D geometry files existing; at the time this part was designed, the current FEA structural design capabilities were not available for structural optimization and weight reduction. Scansite was able to provide legacy data for the part and give the engineers the ability to anaylize the part before resuming production.