3D SCANNING

PANASONIC:Start Of A 3D Organization Integrating Concept, Design, And Mold Manufacture

APPLICATION NOTES

In the home appliance field, the Home Appliances Manufacturing Business Unit of Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. continues to offer products for a new lifestyle in the areas of beauty, health, comfort and fun under the National brand in Japan and the Panasonic brand overseas, such as the Ionity negative-ion dryer, the Lamdash shaver with 4 world’s-first technologies, and the RealPro Massage Lounger that uses digital control to provide a pleasurable full-body massage.

According to Mitsuo Nakatani, manager of the 3D Modeling Team, IT Planning Group in the company’s Supply Chain

Management Promotion Division, the key to success in developing products targeting high QCD is the use of 3D development.

By analyzing past product development processes, Mr. Nakatani found that the main factor causing deviation from development targets was the development of appearance, in which design, drafting, and mold anufacture are intricately entwined. Based on this idea, he promoted the necessity of a new specialized organization for 3D development

Members from design, drafting, and mold manufacturing areas were assembled to create the new organization specializing in 3D, with the members made responsible for digitization of each section’s data and ensuring appearance consistency. In addition, roles of each section were clarified, enabling them to focus on areas where they can fully exhibit their capabilties as professionals.

Creating 3D Data With The Same Proportions As The Finished Product

KONICA MINOLTA SENSING AMERICAS, INC. • 101 WILLIAMS DRIVE RAMSEY, NJ 07446 • KONICAMINOLTA.COM/SENSINGUSA • ShopKMSA.com • TOLL FREE 888-473-2656 • OUTSIDE USA 201-236-4300

“In order for the 3D organization to function, it is necessary to accurately digitize 3D shapes and create 3D data with proportions identical to those of the finished product” says Mr. Nakatani.

In the actual design and drafting processes, the design image concept created by the designer is first passed to the special organization, and simple 3D data of the outside appearance is passed to the drafting group for creating the basic structure. From this point, work is performed concurrently.

The specialized organization then creates the outside from the viewpoints of design, drafting, and mold manufacture, and during that time, the drafting person drafts the inside.

“Creating using the head and hands is better than 3D CAD. I think the feeling of size that you get from touching it with your hands is important,” says Mr. Nakatani.

A Konica Minolta VIVID 910 Non-Contact 3D Digitizer is used to generate accurate 3D data of the hand-carved design model. Mr. Nakatani continued “A low-cost, easy-to-use digitizer was considered necessary for the design process. High-priced moire-type products from other companies were also considered, but the VIVID provided the best-quality polygons, which are important for creating free curves in downstream processes, and also provided sufficient accuracy. It’s the best digitizer for reverse engineering from design models created with urethane foam, etc..

The outside appearance is modified according to conditions such as the distribution of parts, etc. and the final resulting data is assembled by drafting and sent to mold manufacturing. According to Mr. Nakatani, for the creationof the outside-appearance 3D data which are the key, it is good to first create an actual model from the design image concept.

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Flow From Appearance Design To Drafting For Realpro Massage Lounger*

KONICA MINOLTA SENSING AMERICAS, INC. • 101 WILLIAMS DRIVE RAMSEY, NJ 07446 • KONICAMINOLTA.COM/SENSINGUSA • ShopKMSA.com • TOLL FREE 888-473-2656 • OUTSIDE USA 201-236-4300

* The design model and screen shots at left are for the purpose of explanation, and are not related to the final product.

3D SCANNING APPLICATION NOTES

Major Hidden Possibilities Of 3D Development

KONICA MINOLTA SENSING AMERICAS, INC. • 101 WILLIAMS DRIVE RAMSEY, NJ 07446 • KONICAMINOLTA.COM/SENSINGUSA • ShopKMSA.com • TOLL FREE 888-473-2656 • OUTSIDE USA 201-236-4300

The company is also expanding the utilization range for non-contact 3D digitizers. Mr. Nakatani says “The area of use is expanding” (beyond the design and drafting processes to analysis of components for which no 3D data is available, shape inspection of molds and products, and even to creation of 3D graphics for sales promotion purposes). “The automotive industry has been using 3D scanning for a long time, but we’ve realized its usefulness for home appliances also.” In particular, with VIVID “There is no need to go to the trouble of sticking on markers to merge multiple scans. Points can be indicated in the software for easy alignment. A rotating stage can also be used to make automatic scanning simple. It’s very efficient for scanning design models like our company does.”

In addition, as a result of the active promotion of 3D development in the design and drafting processes, there are cases in the mold-making process in which shape approval was granted on just the first try after the mold was completed (with no modification of the mold for the second try), and mass-production could be started. The company also achieved QCD through 3D development using the non-contact 3D digitizer, and Mr. Nakatani is convinced that “Design quality has greatly improved because the intentions and knowhow of the designer can be reflected directly.”

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