How we use Catia V5 in the office

Once again, the automotive design offices are in a extremely privileged position to have the most advanced 3D CAD systems as standard. Whilst there are a number to choose from, throughout the majority of the 14 years I was lucky enough to be in various offices like McLaren Automotive, Caparo and Gordon Murray Design we all used Dassault Systemes CATIA.

Although the initial investment is often hard to justify, I 100% believe that if the software is used properly and used in as many of the design stages as possible (i.e. from initial concepts right through to even the hydrodynamics of a yacht) the costs can be justified.

Whilst it is easy for me to say that it can be used efficiently, after 14 years sitting behind my CAD screen, it is a daunting task taking on a new design tool such as this, and the hard bit starts right from the start when you try and decide which of the many options you want/need. In the marine markets these generally range from styling tools, naval architecture, general 3D CAD right through to the composite FEA software. And of course, if you have the budget, these options could end up costing a frightening amount of money. But in most offices, the users just need some surfacing and then some solid generating tools, together with the standard 2D packages. And in fact its not until you need to generate A-Class surfaces (exterior panels) for cars that you need all the top level surfacing tools, particularly if you are importing your hull and foil shapes from other software.

To cut a long story short, I believe that having a tool such as Catia will help everyone in a design office. And due to the fact that the design process withing Catia is all parametric, if you need to go back and change anything it is easy. This makes it significantly faster to create not only the first parts but also the next parts if they are similar. It allows all the designers and engineers to see what everyone else is doing in the office as you can generate large assemblies on your screen and hence reduces errors. It will help to manage to the design process from start to finish, with its data management software called SmarTeam. This allows the engineers to do the design work, send it to the line managers for sign off, and then allows the rest of the office (purchasing, manufacturing etc) to see and download the relevant information.

To get over the first hurdle of trying to choose what I needed, I worked very closely with a company called Intrinsys www.Intrinsys.co.uk, in the UK. They are one of the companies that sell CATIA, and are the people you should go to if you are connected to the marine business. The main reason I chose to buy from them is that having worked with them when I was at Caparo, where they supported us in setting up our own unique solutions to how we wanted the design office to work, I know that whilst they are "salesmen" for CATIA, whats more important is that they are first and foremost, users of the software, and in fact the majority of their engineers on site are working on internal projects designing advanced automotive components for internal and external projects. This is vital when wandering down a "new path" as they were able to give me honest answers and will always be there on the end of the phone if it doesn't all go quite how I was hoping it might...! And for those of you thinking that your office just cannot justify this sort of software, then give them a call and I am sure you will be surprised just how much it might cost.....

So now I am in a position to be able to offer some help or design work to any of the design offices out there who are looking into using this type of software, or who have already chosen it but need more parts designed and engineered.

If any further details are required or if you may have a possible application for this process, then please contact us at any time at Info@LightBlackDesign.com

Sprayed Carbon Fibre

As mentioned in previous posts, Light Black Design  have been working closely with Bentley Motors in the UK, to help them develop a possible process to produce components for future cars within the VW Group.

Key to the engineering of these parts are the use of PUR for the matrix and combining this with a process developed by Bentley Motors called DCFP (Directed Carbon Fibre Preforming).

Key to the potential success of this process is the ability to "spray" chopped carbon fibres (approx 100mm long) onto the mould or part surface whilst still keeping a high degree of alignment of the fibres. This effectively gives you a composite panels with approx 80% of the properties of a Uni-directional tape, but with a fraction of the labour and material costs.

Whilst this is still being developed by Bentley for their automotive products, they are very keen to look at other possible applications, such as marine. I have spoken to them about several possible uses, and I feel that this would be perfect for monolithic parts such as RIBS and tenders. Here, the use of carbon is usually restricted due to material and labour costs, but with this process both of these will be reduced (the labour could even be removed if robots are used). And when every 10% you save in vehicle weight (be it boats or cars) you can save 7% of the fuel. And when you consider the fact that fuel is costing around £1.80 per litre on the rivers now, the potential saving in running costs cannot be ignored.

If any further details are required or if you may have a possible application for this process, then please contact us at any time at Info@LightBlackDesign.com

Short fibre technologhy

Throughout Dans career in the automotive design sector, the principal aim of all the materials and processes that we developed was to reduce the part cost.

Whilst the most efficient use of composites is to create a sandwich panel (ie with a lightweight core and thin, carbon skins to create thickness), in some areas the panels only needed to be monolithic (ie with no core). For these parts (as for most composite parts), the labour cost is a significant portion of the overall cost. To reduce this, several companies have developed "pastes" with shortened fibres in that can laid into the tools rapidly which in turn produces a much lower cost part, with very similar properties to one made from woven cloths.

To take full advantage of this process, and maximise the potential cost savings, there must be a degree of investment in the tooling route taken, but from the studies we have undertaken for automotive customers, the break-even point as far as volumes go is not as high as people might think.....

Having worked very closely with the main composite suppliers developing this technology, Light Black Design are in an ideal position to pass on the advances we have made and advise you on possible areas that they could be used in the production of marine components. Typical products that could benefit form this process are such items as hatch surrounds, steering binnacles, deck hatches and deck gear. The key factor to choosing the right part is that they are all produced in volumes to some degree. The potential list is long...

If any further details are required or if you may have a possible application for this process, then please contact us at any time at Info@LightBlackDesign.com

some lightweight, low cost composite panels

Following on from the forum Dan sat on at the Yacht Racing Design & Technology Symposium in December 2010 www.yrdts.com, here are some of the details of the lightweight, cored and most importantly, cheap, high performance composite panels that were showed at the conference.

This process is one that was developed specifically for the automotive markets, and is traditionally used for rear parcel shelves and boot floors.

During a previous high volume, low-cost car program Dan worked closely with Bayer to develop the process and materials so that we could produce extremely complex 3D parts, that could be used to form the main panels of the chassis. Whilst we cannot obviously show these panels here, we have some small sample sections that will give you an idea of the type of geometry possible.





The process uses Polyurethane as the matrix (rather than the traditional Epoxies and Polyesters usually used in such products). This has an extremely fast cure profile and can be cured in about 90 seconds if required. In fact, from dry cloth on a roll to a fully cured, net edge part ready to be bonded in the chassis was just over 2 minutes... Where these high volumes are needed (up to about 300,000 parts per year) robots are always used to spray the PUR and can also be used to spray additional Chopped fibres into areas that require additional local reinforcements. Dan worked very closely with a company called Hennecke in Germany www.hennecke.com to ensure that all the possible avenues were explored to produce the most efficient (cost and performance) parts.

Whilst these throughput times are perhaps not appropriate for most marine applications, they may allow the designers to produce extremely lightweight, low cost panels such as doors, floorboards. Where a boat manufacturer may perhaps be producing a reasonable boats in a range, if every boat had the same size doors, and every boat has say 3 doors, then the volumes very quickly reach a number that is ideal for this type of process. In fact, on some super yachts, which can have 150m2 of floorboards which are traditionally made from 25mm ply wood, the weight saving could be over 5kg per m2 (i.e 50% of the baseline boards)

If any further details are required or if you may have a possible application for this process, then please contact us at any time at Info@LightBlackDesign.com



The "Taxi of Tomorrow"....

Late in 2010 Dan was contacted by Hexagon Studio, in Turkey, to work with them to specify the manufacturing processes for the Exterior and Interior Panels on their proposal for the New York Cities "Taxi of Tomorrow".

Whilst working closely with Hexagons Engineers we assessed all the feasible materials and processes, and then spent some time shortening the list until we had just the most viable options.

Having written up some detailed specifications of all the panels and their targets, we then contacted some potential Tier 1 suppliers, from a long list of companies we have worked with on previous automotive projects.

As they all came back to us, with all the relevant Part and Tooling costs, we compiled all the information and past it onto Hexagon to help them compile their Best and Final offer for their proposal to NYC.

NYC will make their final decision soon.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/media/totweb/taxioftomorrow_karsan2.html

Optimising the composite structure of RIBS

REDUCING THE WEIGHT AND COST OF PRODUCTION RIBs

Late in the summer of 2010 we were contacted by a leading manufacturer of RIBs in the UK, Coastline Marine, who are looking to further improve the quality of their current line of boats whilst simultaneously reducing the weight and even the overall costs.

Key to this project is my thorough understanding of "what is appropriate" for this type of business. Together with the key people at Coastline we are looking closely at their current laminates and carefully defining new materials that fit within with the current techniques used there. This will result in a more efficient layup that will reduce the production costs and structural weight of the boats. This weight saving is critical to this type of boat where a 10% reduction can typically save 6% of the fuel costs.

Aluminium Tooling for High Quality carbon fibre parts

HIGHER QUALITY PARTS FROM NEW TOOLING METHODS.

Light Black Design is currently working with Richard Faulkner Composites in the UK to design and produce tooling to allow Richard and his team to manufacture multiple carbon fibre parts with an extremely high quality surface finish. To allow them to repeat the quality over and over again I recommended that they machine moulds from aluminium and engaged a machine shop that will produce the tools for a competitive price.

Despite the higher initial investment, the overall cost of producing the 18 carbon parts is lower due to the reduced amount  of preparation work required on the tools before each part is made, with very little finishing needed on the parts.

Lightweight Chassis concept for Bentley Motors...

CONCEPT CHASSIS DESIGN FOR BENTLEY MOTORS

We were contacted by Bentley Motors, in the UK, to help define the geometry and material specifications for an area of a chassis for one of their concept cars being developed by them in conjunction with the other sports car companies in the Volkswagen group.

The baseline materials in this investigation are a further development of my previous work within automotive groups to produce lightweight yet extremely cost effective composite panels, which are viable for current automotive production lines. This technology will be combined with DCFP (Directed Carbon Fibre Preforming) the revolutionary process being developed by Bentley.

Most importantly, this technology has the potential to transform the way certain composite boats are made and even drastically reduce the overall costs. It may indeed close the gap between the cost of glass and carbon fibre boats, which will allow the industry to take advantage of the dramatically reduced running costs of the lighter carbon fibre boats.

 

Rotating aerofoils for Standing Rigging.....

IMPROVED AERODYNAMICS FOR YACHTS STANDING RIGGING

One of the first companies to take advantage of our design and material knowledge was Future Fibres S.L.U, in Spain.

We worked closely with their engineers to design and manufacture a rotating aerofoil section that can be retrofitted to any standing rigging that could significantly improve the performance of the yacht.

Key to the success of these foils is the selection of materials and tooling that are typically only used in the automotive sectors. This was backed up by a deep understanding of aerodynamics that I have gained whilst having been part of top- level sailing and automotive teams.

These products are now being eagerly discussed in the sailing press (click HERE for a link to a copy of an article in November’s issue of Yachting World) and are commercially available for any boat through Future Fibres.

Our work with other industries.....

OTHER INDUSTRIES LIGHT BLACK DESIGN ARE WORKING WITH....

Light Black Design's work is not limited to just the marine and automotive sectors. Other industries are also interested in learning from the advances made by the automotive industry. We have been contacted from all levels of technology, looking either to reduce cost at the higher end, or improve efficiency at the lower end.

For example, Light Black Design was been contacted by a company who design and manufacture satellite systems for global customers.

They have a reputation for producing products for a fraction of the cost of their competitors. I have been asked to come in at appropriate times in future projects to look at the traditional methods currently employed in aerospace industry and to define some alternative methods and processes for non critical areas of the projects, while still achieving the same high levels of quality and design. The key objective is to reduce the overall cost for their premier aerospace programmes.

Working closely with companies such as these allows Light Black Design to keep abreast of all the latest technology and processes, putting us in the unique position of being able to transfer the knowledge that was once beyond the reach of the marine sector and offer unprecedented guidance in using the advances to their maximum potential.

Light Black Designs First Year....

As we come to the end of Light Black Design's first year, we have been working closely with a variety of businesses in both the marine and automotive sectors. We have looked at a wide range of areas where companies can improve the quality and performance of their existing and future product lines, ranging from low volume RIBS to high volume production yachts, from component manufactures to aerospace structures.

Since starting Light Black Design I have been to various shows and exhibitions throughout Europe.

Once again I will be attending many of these events in 2010 & 2011 and would be more than happy to arrange a meeting if there is anything you would like to discuss with me.

Here is a brief list of some of the events and the dates I will be there:

METS, Amsterdam. 16^th and 17^th November 2010. 

Yacht Racing Design & Technology Symposium, Estoril. 14^th and 15^th December 2010.

London International Boat Show. 7th January, 2011

JEC Composites Show, Paris. 29th to 31st March, 2011.

I have contributed to an article on “...car design versus boat design...” for SuperYacht Design to be published in December 2010 in their Q5 edition.

Our 2010 Newsletter can downloaded HERE.