Modernizing Product Development for Legacy Parts

Ski Boot Re-Designed

A customer approached us with a molded ski boot that was manufactured with outdated techniques. They had been manufacturing the same design for years and wanted to update the design as well as their processes for manufacturing. Furthermore, the manufacturing processes they had been using were not cost-effective and slowed the production and quality of their product. Applications 3D was tasked with modernizing the product development of this legacy boot design.

Initial Steps for Modernizing the Product Development

The process started with us 3D scanning the legacy product. Because this was done with a Zeiss Comet white light scanner, millions of highly accurate points were captured all over the surface of the part. These points are then triangulated into a 3D model referred to as a mesh. Once the data was gathered, the boot can be reverse-engineered. Although the exact dimensions of the original boot will not be used, a base CAD model must be created for the addition/removal of features. Staying closely in contact with the customer, a design was created. Further, extreme care was taken to ensure that the CAD surface models were very high quality and smooth flowing, this ensured a great-looking product. As well, advanced methods to create a fully moldable product were used such as creating proper drafts, shutoffs, uniform material thickness around the part, and general moldability. 

Modernization of the Boot

New features were added to the newly created model. Some features were added to increase the safety of the product as well as durability. Others were added so that the boot could be manufactured in a more cost-effective and timely manner. These features included rivets that got molded directly into the boot. This not only increased the strength of the components that would attach at the rivet but, also speed up the assembly process of the boots. 

With the now updated boot and modern features created, a new way to rapidly produce them also had to be made. This was to be done by creating a very accurate mold. The previous mold used for molding this boot was a one-off hand-made mold that was not repeatable nor easy to repair. With the new mold, cut using a CNC machine, each boot will be highly accurate. Thus, tightening the tolerances of the finished product. Not only was the new mold more accurate but it produced boots at a much faster rate. The automated mold with fully integrated cooling reduced the overall molding time by 80%. 

The new boot now looks futuristic and consistent between different samples.