Re(verse) Engineering - Ethics

Can Apple, Samsung, Sony reverse engineer each other’s products and give them a slight shape difference and enter the market? Is it ethical?

The easy availability of computer-aided design packages, reverse engineering methodology has become an easy tool to create a 3D model of an existing part. This is helped by CAD, 3 axes CMM with cloud point data and formation of 3D models automatically. Scanners and 3D printers give you the illusion that reverse engineering is easy as a fairy tale.

The hard work done by the original inventor tends to get belittled and it seems that reverse engineering is unethical. In order to reproduce a part in the entirety one often needs to go deep and get to the bottom of the issue – be it ethical, or functional.

Well both have answers and seldom do we find an article that elucidates on both these issues comprehensively.

 Technical: in order to make a part or specify a part in mechanical Engineering we need to specify the following:

 Here I have drawn a list that covers the most common details specified and is not exhaustive but definitely indicative and to say the least informative- looking from an engineering product perspective:

• Material specification (could be guided by a chemical or polymer test done on a chipped off part)
• Printed circuits could be reproduced and the same vendors could be selected to source the same part.
• Heat treatment requirement- (more so for metallic parts -hardness  could be measured from a Rockwell hardness measuring device)
• Surface roughness (measurable)
• Selection of the right manufacturing method decision to be made or may be driven based on production volumes.
• Plating or other requirements

After these are done then applying general mechanical Engineering design principles- like selection of bearings, lubrication would be necessary.

After these are done one needs to select a drive or a power train (also could be of the same specification, engineered from the original one!)

With all these one is now almost ready with the ingredients and specification and generated drawings for a reverse engineered part or a sub system.

Now it’s the turn to address the other main issue- the ethical one:

With lot of companies investing heavily in R&D they feel that their efforts in making and spending for research should be paid- off for them to sustain and increase their research.This is a fair wish and the thought has to be respected for the sustenance of engineering efforts.

How then to do reverse engineering without offending the principle inventors?

Will companies that offer reverse engineering solutions stand by their clients in an all-weather relationship when a lawsuit is framed for illegal – copying?

What then is the merit of reverse engineering?