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54 Engineering Fundamentals
Reverse Engineering
Reverse engineering is the process of examining
existing products or processes to gain information.
Engineers disassemble products and mechanisms
to better understand how they were designed and
how they work. This information could be used to
understand it, recreate it, fi nd ways to improve it, or
fi gure out how to destroy it, in the case of something
harmful like a computer virus. See Figure 3-15.
Reverse engineering started as companies
and militaries tried to understand and improve
on products and processes their competition was
using, but it has grown to become an extremely
valuable tool.
Reverse engineering involves many ethical
considerations. It is acceptable to examine products
that were designed and produced by others. But it
is illegal to use other people’s ideas when they are
protected by patents. People who invent new prod-
ucts and designs can request to have them patented
so that no one can recreate them without permis-
sion. Patents were discussed in detail in Chapter 2.
Engineering Notebooks
Engineers typically record all their thoughts,
ideas, sketches, calculations, designs, and more
in engineering notebooks. An engineering note-
book is an effective way to record all the infor-
mation from every step of the design process in
one place, in case you need to access it in the
future. When kept properly, engineering note-
books can be legal documents if there are ever
disputes over intellectual property. Intellectual
property refers to the legal rights to the creations
of the mind. Engineers, artists, inventors, design-
ers, and others have specifi c rights to their origi-
nal work and ideas. Artistic and literary works
are protected under copyright laws. Industrial
property, such as inventions and designs, are
protected under patent law. When an engineer
comes up with a new idea or invention that
could be worth a lot of money, he or she has sole
rights to that idea, as long as the proper steps
are taken.
It is very important for engineers to keep
engineering notebooks in a way that will legally
protect their ideas in the future. For legal
purposes, it is important to use a notebook with
a fi xed binding so that no pages can be added or
removed. Books are available with lined paper,
blank paper, or graph paper. Graph paper is
useful because sketches can be made easily on it.
See Figure 3-16.
Figure 3-15. 
Many types of products
are reverse engineered,
including fuel filters.
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