We were put in touch with someone who was restoring an old Kawasaki HX 125 to mint condition. These bikes are rare to find in good condition and some parts are no longer manufactured including the front brake disc/caliper cover. The customer’s existing brake cover was damaged and required full reverse engineering to restore it.

Due to the extent of the damage, scanning the part and directly cleaning up the mesh for reproduction was not possible. Instead, the part had to be recreated using parametric CAD. Surfacing techniques were used to define each surface and seamlessly blend them together.

The part was accurately scanned using our Creaform HandySCAN Black | Elite, which was important for ensuring a good fit to the mounting points. The surface modelling was done in Geomagic DesignX allowing for a combination of typical surface techniques along with mesh-fitted surfaces where required. Once the surface was created, a thickness was added to make the part solid.

The part was then converted to a .stl polygonal model and printed using a Snapmaker A350 with white PLA. As the bike is primarily for show, brake temperatures didn’t need to be considered when selecting material. If temperature had been a concern, carbon composite materials with HSHT Fibreglass reinforcement would have been more suitable. A brim was used to aid build-plate adhesion and the print took over 80 hours to complete.

The print fitted well to the bike first time and didn’t require any tweaks or adjustments. The client was very happy with the outcome and has since recommended us to some fellow enthusiasts interested in their own copies.