Acquisition and Reconstruction of a Turbine Blade for a Comparative Analysis between Two Non Contact Reverse Engineering Methodologies

A comparative analysis between two different non-contact methods of reverse engineering (RE) data acquisition, a laser system and an ultrasonic system, is carried out.The product selected for the comparison is a turbine blade for aeronautical engines. This product is characterised by a complex external geometry as well as by internal features (cooling channels). In a first phase, the shape of the turbine blade was acquired in the form of point clouds using the two RE methods. In a second phase, the geometrical features of the turbine blade were reconstructed on the basis of the obtained point clouds. In the final phase, a comparison between the two reconstructions was performed. The systems characteristics, the point clouds and the resulting surfaces were compared and critically assessed.