CIMdata PLM Industry Summary Online Archive

5 November 2007

Implementation Investments

Delcam Software Helps Speed Development of Motorcycle Accessories

Corbin-Pacific Inc. in Hollister, California, has cut the time needed to develop its new motorcycle accessories substantially with a combination of new reverse engineering and five-axis machining equipment, together with the addition of Delcam's CADCAM software. The gains have been seen across the company's range of customised, handmade designs for saddlebags, fairings, back-rests and other accessories.

The new product development process at Corbin's Hollister plant starts with choosing several motorcycles from each year's crop of about 30 new street bikes, off-road bikes and scooters. Working in a studio jammed with motorcycles, eight designers called "shapers" sculpt each new product in modelling clay. All Corbin products are asymmetrical along a vehicle centreline so only half needs to be modelled. Even so, each design still takes about a week.

With the old process, as soon as the shapers were finished, modelmakers duplicated and mirrored the right-hand halves in a two-part urethane plastic. That completed the model from which the moulds were made. Prior to reverse engineering, completing the models and making moulds took four more weeks.

Now, the design data is captured as a cloud of points within Delcam's PowerINSPECT software using a Perceptron laser scanner fitted to a 7-axis Romer portable co-ordinate measuring machine. Delcam's CopyCAD reverse engineering program is then used to convert the points into surfaces that are passed into the CAD system, PowerSHAPE, for the addition of any extra details and to generate parting lines for the master models. Finally, the completed designs are imported into Delcam's PowerMILL CAM system to generate programs for Corbin's new Diversified Machine Systems five-axis router. With this approach, completing the models and making the moulds takes just one week.

Tom Corbin, chief operating officer bought the technology based on a simple test. "We gave a left-hand saddlebag from one of our shapers to Jerry Saunders from our local Delcam reseller, Vizion, and told him to duplicate it for us," he recalled. "His team did it right in front of us, almost in real time. They did a second demo with another of our products and walked my staff through the scanning, editing and programming process. At that point, we were sold and we have never looked back."

"Scanning is 75% faster than the hand methods we had been using," said Tom Corbin. "Those methods, plus the time needed to find and train designers, had sharply limited our growth. The new tools have really empowered the company to become more imaginative, to create more exquisite, more finely-detailed new products," he added. "The key to any successful company is being involved with the customers and, for us, that means a steady flow of great new designs."

The people responsible for using the reverse engineering and inspection systems are Design Engineering Manager Anthony Printis and Machinist Armando Rodriguez. "The whole system is very intuitive, and it works seamlessly with the rest of the operations," said Mr. Printis. With four hours of training and only limited knowledge of the process, in their first six weeks he and Mr. Rodriguez scanned and duplicated a saddle bag for a Kawasaki, a smuggler box for a Honda and a windshield fairing for a Yamaha.

The other benefit of the new approach has been in the accuracy of the models. With the traditional methods, making the right-hand halves of its designs exactly mirror the handmade left-hand models had always been challenge. The modelmakers used cardboard templates, gauges, measuring tape, callipers, files and so forth, none of which were very accurate. The new approach gives much more reliable duplication. Getting this right is critical as fairings and smuggler-box halves must mate with no visible seam.

Mr. Printis noted that "The inspection jobs are quickly set up, despite the complexity of this work. Whether the data is touch-probed points or clouds of points, generating files for machining or design refinements is quick, easy and very intuitive. Delcam's PowerSHAPE is well suited to creating and refining surfaces, as well as solid models, starting with points in 3D space instead of geometry," he continued. "Over the years I have worked with a lot of CAM packages and, for complex work, PowerMILL is the best."

The new process has helped create opportunities for more new products in smaller markets. "We can now do much shorter runs and still make money," Tom Corbin explained. "Not long ago we needed thousands of pieces for a good market. Now even 300 to 500 pieces is very attractive to us."

It has also made it easier to explore new styling and design ideas, such as a saddlebag moulded with Ferrari-like fins. "With the old hand-duplicating methods, we could not have done something with fins like that," Tom Corbin commented. "Our new level of design flexibility lets us be much more imaginative."

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