{"id":26229,"date":"2026-03-05T11:32:04","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T11:32:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.quicksurface.com\/?p=26229"},"modified":"2026-03-30T11:25:55","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T11:25:55","slug":"case-study-reverse-engineering-a-cooling-unit-propeller","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.quicksurface.com\/it\/case-study-reverse-engineering-a-cooling-unit-propeller\/","title":{"rendered":"Da un'elica danneggiata a un modello CAD pronto per la produzione con QUICKSURFACE"},"content":{"rendered":"
QUICKSURFACE<\/a> 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.<\/em><\/strong><\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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RVF3D Engineering Ltd. <\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rio de Janeiro \u2013 Brazil<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the following years, RVF3D<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ricardo explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnce 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<\/a>, we immediately switched to it. For that, we thank the support we received from Prumo Tech<\/a>, a KVS representative in Brazil.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The challenge: reverse engineer and 3D print a cooling unit propeller within one week<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Broken propeller<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Propeller<\/em> mended with silicone rubber<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, they sprayed the propeller with AESUB<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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RV3D Studio software – the scaned propeller 3D model generated but still with irregularities on the blades.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jose Ricardo explains:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo 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<\/a> and had very little experience with it, so the support from RVS_3D was essential to our success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks to the high quality of the Harpy M scanner, the team obtained a very accurate scan, although the blade defects were still visible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Preparing the mesh for reverse engineering<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

To prepare the mesh file, RVF3D used the Prepare Scan<\/strong> tools inside QUICKSURFACE<\/a>. These tools allowed them to remove imperfections from the blade surfaces, smooth the mesh, and align the model to the XYZ reference axes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Best-shaped blade section after scanning<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Blade section after being smoothed in QUICKSURFACE<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Rebuilding the propeller in QUICKSURFACE<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

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

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Scaned STL file prepared in QS and oriented on XYZ axes, almost free of imperfections<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They followed a structured workflow<\/a>:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n