QUICKSURFACE helped a Brazilian engineering office accelerate the reverse engineering of a cooling unit propeller by transforming 3D scan data into precise CAD geometry. Using a structured Scan-to-CAD workflow, the team reconstructed the damaged component and produced a production-ready CAD model suitable for manufacturing and 3D printing.

RVF3D Engineering Ltd.

Rio de Janeiro – Brazil

RVF3D was established in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic, as a remote engineering services office. The company began with two enclosed FDM printers focused on 3D modeling with CAD software and printing customized plastic car parts.

Two engineers founded the company: Ricardo Freitas, who had just retired after more than 35 years working in the aviation industry, and his son Jose Ricardo Freitas, who had recently graduated as a mechanical engineer and already had CAD design experience with several software systems.

The office quickly expanded its activities. It started providing 3D printing support for academic projects and producing mechanical parts for local machining industries and automotive workshops.

Over the following years, RVF3D expanded its capabilities to include 3D design and modeling through 3D scanning and reverse engineering. The company began supporting larger industries such as plastic injection molding, oil & gas, and metal-mechanics across the Petropolis region and the greater Rio de Janeiro area.

Ricardo explains:

“Once we expanded our activities to larger customers, we faced a new challenge. We clearly needed software that could quickly deliver high-quality reverse engineering projects with ease. Initially, we moved to Solid Edge, which offers very basic reverse engineering functions like surface filling. But as soon as we discovered QUICKSURFACE Pro, we immediately switched to it. For that, we thank the support we received from Prumo Tech, a KVS representative in Brazil.”

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The challenge: reverse engineer and 3D print a cooling unit propeller within one week

A customer who operates a large machining shop approached RVF3D with an urgent problem. The shop used a 4-blade propeller inside a cooling unit. After several attempts to repair the propeller by patching damaged areas with black silicone rubber, the component no longer functioned correctly. The propeller became unbalanced and fragile and frequently broke during operation.

Broken propeller

Propeller mended with silicone rubber

The cooling unit could not operate without this propeller, which played a critical role in cooling the oil exchanger. Because the machine was old, replacement propellers were no longer available on the market. The situation threatened the entire CNC machine operation.

Since RVF3D had previously visited the customer, the shop contacted them immediately. RVF3D collected the damaged propeller and brought it to their office for scanning.

However, they encountered the first major challenge. The repaired areas on the blades contained multiple scars from the silicone patches. These irregularities made it difficult to capture smooth surfaces during scanning.

The team first sanded the blade surfaces to remove the most severe roughness. Some imperfections remained, so they planned to correct them later in the STL mesh generated during the scanning process.

Next, they sprayed the propeller with AESUB blue scanning spray because the original surface was black. They placed the propeller on a manual turntable with markers and scanned both sides using the RVS_3D Harpy M scanner and RV3D Studio scanning software.

RV3D Studio software – the scaned propeller 3D model generated but still with irregularities on the blades.

Jose Ricardo explains:

“So far this was the easiest part of the job, but it still took almost two days. After that we needed to smooth the STL surfaces and start the reverse engineering process. We had just purchased QUICKSURFACE Pro and had very little experience with it, so the support from RVS_3D was essential to our success.”

Thanks to the high quality of the Harpy M scanner, the team obtained a very accurate scan, although the blade defects were still visible.

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Preparing the mesh for reverse engineering

To prepare the mesh file, RVF3D used the Prepare Scan tools inside QUICKSURFACE. These tools allowed them to remove imperfections from the blade surfaces, smooth the mesh, and align the model to the XYZ reference axes.

Best-shaped blade section after scanning

Blade section after being smoothed in QUICKSURFACE

After cleaning the mesh, they selected the best-preserved blade among the four damaged ones and used it as the reference geometry for the reconstruction.

Rebuilding the propeller in QUICKSURFACE

The team then began the reverse engineering process using QUICKSURFACE Pro. With the support of Prumo Tech, they quickly created a precise CAD model.

Scaned STL file prepared in QS and oriented on XYZ axes, almost free of imperfections

They followed a structured workflow:

• First, they used Surface Fitting tools to reconstruct the front and back surfaces of the blade directly over the mesh.

Front blade surface defined using the “Surface Fitting” tool in QUICKSURFACE Pro

“Surface Fitting” functionality in QUICKSURFACE Pro on the front side of the blade

“Surface Fitting” functionality in QUICKSURFACE Pro on the back side of the blade

Front and back side surfaces created over the mesh

• Next, they created sketches of the central hub and extruded the central body.

Creating a sketch of the central body

Extruding the central body

• They then created a sketch of the blade profile and extruded the blade through the reconstructed front and back surfaces.

Creating a sketch of the blade

Blade profile extruded through the front and back

• After trimming excess surfaces and combining the bodies, they produced a clean solid model.

After trimming excess surfaces and combining the bodies, a clean solid model was created

• A comparison between the reconstructed model and the scanned STL showed a deviation within 0.10 mm, confirming the accuracy of the reconstruction.

Final solid body combining the central body and the blade

Comparison of the final model with the scanned STL file, showing deviations within ±0.10 mm (green)

• Using the completed blade, they created a circular pattern to generate all four blades.

Circular pattern applied to generate four blades

• Finally, they added internal ribs and additional cuts to match the original design.

Ribs cut into the central body on the back side of the propeller

Additional cuts made on the back side

• After only a few hours of work, the team finalized the propeller model in QUICKSURFACE.

Final propeller CAD model created in QUICKSURFACE after a few hours of work — back face

Final propeller CAD model created in QUICKSURFACE after a few hours of work — front face

Improving the design and preparing for 3D printing

Before printing, the team improved the design. They reinforced the junction between the blades and the central hub by adding fillets, thickened the internal rib walls, and smoothed the leading and trailing edges of the blades.

STL image of the final improved version of the propeller

Due to time constraints, they could not fully apply Design for Additive Manufacturing principles. As a result, the print required significant support structures.

They exported the final model as STEP and STL files.

3D printing the propeller

RVF3D printed the propeller using their upgraded Creality K1 Max 3D printer and ABS Premium MG94 black filament.

They prepared the model in Orca Slicer, using high-speed configurations developed by their team.

Propeller file set up in Orca Slicer

Because of the blade geometry, the printing process required a large amount of support material. The print took more than 24 hours to complete.

Propeller being 3D printed — the process took more than 24 hours

Final propeller after 3D printing and removing supports

Despite the heavy supports, the final result was impressive. After removing the supports, the propeller showed only minor marks.

The team delivered the part to the customer within four days of receiving the damaged propeller.

The customer planned to either sand and paint the component or install it directly after printing. They also needed to manufacture a metal bushing for the central hole.

Testing and final approval

The customer tested the new propeller on a lathe at 1800 RPM to verify mechanical performance and balance.

Propeller being tested and checked for balancing on a lathe at 1800 RPM

The propeller performed flawlessly.

After successful testing, the customer approved the part for installation in the cooling unit.

Conclusion

Ricardo concludes:

“It was amazing that we could support the customer’s requirements for quality, accuracy, and lead time by using QUICKSURFACE Pro to reverse engineer this complex part. A high-quality scanner allowed us to capture an accurate 3D model to work from. With QUICKSURFACE Pro and the support from Prumotech, we significantly improved our product design quality and accelerated our development cycle. Now we are ready to take on larger and more complex projects for many different industries.”

Projects like this demonstrate how modern Scan-to-CAD workflows can help engineers recover critical parts quickly and accurately. With QUICKSURFACE, teams can transform 3D scan data into precise, manufacturable CAD models and bring damaged or obsolete components back to life.

Want to try it yourself?
Download the QUICKSURFACE trial and experience how fast reverse engineering can be.

Special thanks to RVF3D Engineering (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Prumo Tech
for sharing this reverse engineering project and workflow.