Toyoda Gosei: shape changes in minutes with Global Shape Modeling

Source. This case study summarizes a customer story published by DPT. It is not a Softprint project. Read the original.

Customer

Toyoda Gosei Co., Ltd., founded in 1949 and part of the Toyota group, is based in Inazawa, Aichi, Japan. This team makes aftermarket parts such as aero parts, bumpers, radiator grilles and side garnishes.

Challenge

Inflexible shape-definition tools slowed progress and limited design quality. The team needed a tool that could turn client design requirements into models quickly and accurately, cut the time for complex changes, and support the whole flow from concept modeling to Class A surfaces, including molds engraved directly from design data.

Solution

Toyoda Gosei chose ThinkDesign and uses:

• Global Shape Modeling (GSM), including Advanced GSM, to modify whole objects (solids, surfaces, curves, points and meshes) in minutes.
• Sketch-to-3D modeling to generate 3D shapes from initial sketches for fast early iterations.
• Reverse engineering to re-create Class A surfaces from scanned clay models.
• Lofted surfaces and a real-time curvature display for surface quality.

Results

• Shape modifications take minutes instead of hours or days.
• Design review meetings with clients increased from once a week to two or three times a week.
• Time-to-market, ROI and cost benefits are described qualitatively; the story gives no figures for them.

What this means for your work

Bumpers, grilles and other styled plastic parts change shape many times before tooling. GSM lets the designer and the tool maker work on one model. Read more in our article on hybrid CAD for tooling.

Source: DPT, https://dptlab.com/thinksuccess/toyoda-gosei/

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