Mechanical Reverse Engineering 18

[designmr]

This is more of an OPINION thread than a question. I am posting it because I always get excellent comments here.

If you were asked to "REVERSE ENGINEER" something, what would that mean to you?

I've dealt with several engineering companies during my work experiece, and this is the first I had to get into "reverse engineering", so looking for opinions.

Thanks again in advance.

 

[MadMango]

At one company, we purchased a competitors product to reverse engineer it to see how badly they infringed on our patents. It didn't take long for use to discover they had copied our product down to the smallest detail, many of which were defunct or for optional accessories. There were holes that were drilled or tapped, and the offending company could not give answers as to why those features were there. It seemed the only thing they changed was the type of expended metal mesh and the overall paint color.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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[zeusfaber]

Our standard Ts&Cs grant us user rights in the design of most of the materiel we buy - that is, if the original supplier is unable or unwilling to supply us with spares at some future date, we have the right to get somebody else to make them for us.

If the original supplier is no longer around or pretends to have lost the drawings, this leads - legally - to reverse engineering at the level of simple copying.

A.

 

[tbuelna]

As a design engineer, I would consider someone asking me to simply "reverse engineer" a product as an insult to my professional capabilities. Instead, I'd prefer that they ask me to engineer an improved version of the product.

When it comes to reverse engineering, most people fail to appreciate the huge amount of engineering work that goes into manufacturing a product, which may not be readily apparent.

 

[MikeHalloran]

If the person writing the check thinks that >simply "reverse engineer"< means 'copy', I'll do it happily. ... assuming the check clears.

I probably won't bother to explain that properly engineering a product from scratch is hugely expensive. ... because asking for a copy suggests that the money man already understands Terry's point about that.

I will point out that a copy operation will most likely result in hard feelings, litigation, and a product that is merely 'competitive',

whereas, for more than the cost of a copy, but less than the cost of 'from scratch', true reverse engineering should result in a superior product.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[jerry1423]

Those involved with "Made in China" do this all the time.

They take an existing part, copy it, and sell it.
This is big in the "replacement parts" industry.

 

[geesamand]

To me, the true meaning of "reverse engineer" is to analyze geometry to a level that would allow one to make a fresh set of dimensioned production prints including reasonable tolerances for the application. For machined/ground/turned parts this requires little special equipment, just time and understanding.

For stylized / freeform shapes, it's a set of good clean data in a data format suitable for further production without loss of function. It could be NURBS or polygon data.

In a few cases, the original design was parametric. I would not expect parametric data unless multiple instances of the parametric product are reverse engineered and parametricity was part of the requirements.

There are plenty of folks out there who "reverse engineer" parts and deliver something that does not get to the end goals I outlined above. Whenever the subject of reverse engineering something comes up I automatically push towards the subject of the outcome because everything in between depends on it.

 

[John7474]

Reverse engineering in my opinion could have as many definitions as we want. It depends upon who is doing it. It could be as similar to world class athletes watching the games of their competitors or it could be similar to not only copying the design but also "forgetting" to change the trademarks while doing so. It depends upon how you define your personal / work / competitive ethics and that ultimately shapes your attitude and approach towards reverse engineering.

Summarizing, it depends upon who is doing it and gravity of the situation making him / her to do it.

 

[IRstuff]

Reverse engineering, at its core, is a learning exercise. That, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. What you do with what you learn is where you can get into trouble. Just like learning 50 ways to kill someone. Unless you use what you learn, you ought not have an issue.

TTFN
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[GregLocock]

Of course the danger with monkey see - monkey do reverse engineering is that you still may not have a satisfactory system

Case in point is one simple item that I could give you the drawing for and the material specs and the chances are 50/50 you would still end up destroying engines if you made them. The drawing is accurate, but without knowing important things about how it is made (documented elsewhere), you would be stuffed.



Cheers

Greg Locock


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[gmartinez]

reverse engineering is to take the original design and use that as a platform for your design to add, subtract, multiple or divide certain or missing features from the original design.