Holocreators Blog

We digitally repaired the broken clothes rail holder of an IKEA closet and then 3D-printed it in plastic. We first 3D-scanned the original broken part using a 3D CT scanner (computed tomography 3D scanner). Afterward, we reconstructed the 3D scan using reverse engineering and thus repaired it. The finished file was 3D-printed inside a laser sintering 3D printer.

At an event at the Sustainable Design Center in Berlin, Swann Rack of Holocreators gave a short talk in November 2017. It was about the different 3D scanning techniques and how to use them in combination with 3D printing for reverse engineering.

SLM is a 3D printing process in which metal powder is fused by laser, creating a new object layer by layer. SLM stands for (Selective Laser Melting), which means that the laser selectively melts the metal powder only where the solid material is needed. In the end, the finished object can be removed from the powder bed.

A NURBS model consists of points connected by curves. A polygon mesh consists of thousands or millions of small triangles. CAD surface models are usually created using NURBS surfaces, while 3D scans are typically exported as a polygon mesh. The conversion from a polygon mesh to a NURBS model is called "reverse engineering".