Computer aided design to produce high-detail models through low cost digital fabrication for the conservation of aerospace heritage

Abstract

Aerospace heritage requires tools that allow its transfer and conservation beyond photographs and texts. The complexity of these engineering projects can be collected through digital graphic representation. Nevertheless, physical scale models provide additional information of high value when they involve full detailed information, for which the model in engineering was normally one more product of the manufacturing process, which entails a high cost. However, the standardization of digital fabrication allows the manufacture of high-detail models at low cost. For this reason, in this paper a case study of the graphic reengineering and planning stages for digital fabrication of a full-scale high-detail model (HDM) of the spatial instrument of the European Space Agency, named the Solar Orbiter mission Polarimetric and Helioseismic Imager (SO/PHI), is presented. After the analysis of this experience, seven stages of planning and graphic reengineering are proposed through collaborative work for the low cost digital manufacture of HDMs. © 2019 by the authors.