EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATIONS TO PROMOTE

THE ETHIOPIAN ECONOMY

PAPER ON REVERSE ENGINEERING
VENKATA DINESH AVVARI
Debre Tabor University
Debre Tabor, Ethiopia
Venkatadinesh.avvari@gmail.com, ph.: 0945549246

Engineering is the profession involved in designing, manufacturing, constructing, and

maintaining of products, systems, and structures. At a higher level, there are two types of
engineering: 1forward engineering and 2reverse engineering. Forward engineering is the
traditional process of moving from high-level abstractions and logical designs to the physical
implementation of a system. In some situations, there may be a physical part without any
technical details, such as drawings, bills-of-material, or without engineering data, such as
thermal and electrical properties. But the process of duplicating an existing component,
subassembly, or product, without the aid of drawings, documentation, or computer model is
known as reverse engineering. In reverse engineering, the steps are inverted. First, engineers
identify the system components and their interrelationships. The object is taken apart to
discover its structure, function, and operation. Duplication of the part is enabled by capturing
physical dimensions, features, and material properties. Reverse engineering is very common
in such diverse fields as software engineering, entertainment, automotive, consumer products,
microchips, chemicals, electronics, and mechanical designs. For example, when a new
machine comes to market, competing manufacturers may buy one machine and disassemble it
to learn how it was built and how it works. A chemical company may use reverse engineering
to defeat a patent on a competitor's manufacturing process. In civil engineering, bridge and
building designs are copied from past successes so there will be less chance of catastrophic
failure. In software engineering, good source code is often a variation of other good source
code. A common scenario in which reverse engineering is needed is as follows: a company
has a machine. A part fails and a replacement part is needed. But the manufacturer has
discontinued the machine and no longer makes parts for it. The machine owner can reverse
engineer a replacement part from the failed part, preventing the machine from going out of
service. And we take other example of Trinity Forge is a closed-die forging plant that
specializes in complex shapes in a wide variety of sizes. To meet the stringent specifications
of their customers, Trinity uses the FARO ScanArm daily to inspect dies when they come off
the CNC machines, to track die wear, and to reverse engineer products that may not have
prints or legacy data available. Therefore Reverse engineering is an important discipline that
can greatly extend the useful life of machines by allowing the machine owner to fabricate his
or her own parts when the OEM has discontinued the product.

Keywords: Forward Engineering, Reverse Engineering, Mechanical machines

References: [1]. Wang, W., 2010. Reverse Engineering: Technology of Reinvention. CRC Press/Taylor and
Francis, Boca Raton.
[2]. Wang, W., Genc, K., 2012. Multiphysics Software Applications in Reverse Engineering. Proceedings of
COMSOL Conference 2012 Boston, paper # 13742.
[3]. J. Chow, T. Xu, S. M. Lee and K. Kengskool, Development of an Integrated Laser-Based Reverse
Engineering and Machining System, International Journal of Advance Manufacturing Technology, Vol. 19, pp.
186-191, 2000.