What do you do when your critical pump runs with an impeller whose manufacturer disappeared 20 years ago, no drawing exists in archive, and the shutdown window is 6 weeks?
Step 1 — High-resolution 3D scan
On site, pump disassembly and structured scan of the impeller with a blue-light scanner (50 micron resolution). In 4 hours, we have a usable point cloud.
Step 2 — CAD reconstruction
The cloud is transformed into NURBS surfaces in industrial CAD software. This is where engineer choices come in: reproduce the wear or restore original geometry? CFD calculations validate that the original design was indeed optimal.
Step 3 — Material analysis via PMI
Portable spectrometry on the original impeller to identify the steel grade. Often duplex or super duplex stainless steel depending on the pumped fluid.
Step 4 — Managed remanufacturing
Precision casting or 5-axis machining depending on geometry. Casting is followed by material sampling and NDT (UT + PMI).
Step 5 — Balancing and FAT
Dynamic balancing on bench, then FAT on test bench to validate hydraulic performance.
The result
6 weeks, part delivered with complete quality dossier and OEM-equivalent performance. Compared to 8 months lead time at the rare manufacturers still capable of producing the new equivalent.
