Over the past decades, reverse engineering has made possible a host of technological advancements in society. Its transformative potential is so strong that it is used in a wide variety of productive areas. In this post we tell you what this method consists of and how it is applied in the chemical industry through forensic engineering.
What is reverse engineering?
Reverse engineering is a technique that consists of exhaustively analyzing the different components of a product or system to discover their technological, design and manufacturing principles. The objective is to reach the original structure and collect the maximum possible amount of information to understand what are the characteristics of the production processes, how the different materials interact with each other and improve their performance.
The use of reverse engineering (also known as retroengineering because it follows the opposite procedure to conventional engineering) is widespread in all types of sectors, such as computer science, construction or industry, since it serves to determine the particularities and the origin of failures in goods of any kind, from software programs to buildings, machines, electronic devices, cars, airplanes, etc.
Advantages of reverse engineering
Thanks to the development of technology and scientific research, reverse engineering offers a wide range of benefits to companies and institutions. We review some of them:
Fault diagnosis
By deconstructing the various compounds and their elaboration mechanisms, reverse engineering helps to precisely identify the causes of pathologies in materials and failures in industrial machinery.
Innovation and improvement
The study of materials allows solving problems in the design and manufacturing phases, incorporating substantial improvements in production processes, with more effective strategies that optimize the activity and the useful life of the products.
Compatibility between materials
In addition to facilitating the choice of more efficient materials, the research provides reliable information on the possibilities of operation and compatibility of the different components with each other.
Accident prevention
The information obtained in the reverse engineering analyzes is decisive when it comes to preventing errors from being repeated in the future, helping to prevent accidents and their consequences.
Clarification of responsibilities
The explanation of the causes of the failures is essential to clarify the possible legal responsibilities for claims for physical and economic damages.
Market studies
Reverse engineering can also be used to compare existing technological systems on the market, taking them as a reference to introduce improvements compared to the competition.
How is reverse engineering applied in the chemical industry?
The specialized procedure by which reverse engineering is applied in the chemical industry is forensic engineering, which is based on analyzing the failures that occur in different materials and that affect the quality and final operation of products, machines and infrastructures. .
Forensic engineering tries to determine the causes and consequences of deficiencies in objects, examining the processes that take place from the beginning of the production chain to the end of the useful life. For this, advanced diagnostic procedures are used in the laboratory, such as spectrophotometry and infrared thermography, destructive and corrosion tests or analysis of fractography and chemical composition of materials.
There is no doubt that forensic engineering is a very useful procedure to prevent accidents, extend the life of the equipment and settle responsibilities in the event of possible claims. If you want to stay informed about current events in the materials industry, we invite you to stay tuned to our blog.
And if you are looking to optimize the production processes of your company, in our forensic engineering service we offer you the most advanced reverse engineering techniques to discover the origin of material failures and optimize the design and manufacture of new products.