Industrial Design

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Published on Sunday, 21 October 2012 07:33

Written by tisser

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Industrial Design

The role of industrial design as a form of art conducting industry has been getting more and more evident in today’s life. Among all different branches of industry, the automotive industry, as a strategic industry in both developed and developing countries, has more significant relationship with industrial design. Designers from all over the world offer their views on beauty and form of products of the automotive industry. A wide variety of fields in art and industry are involved in auto making. Therefore, the automotive industry is one of the most important sectors influencing economy and welfare of nations.

Although in the not so distant past the number of people active in automotive design was small, now there are a large number of people from all different nationalities active in this business and the number is constantly increasing.

An automobile is viewed by the public not only as a means of transport but also as a means of pleasure which represents the owner’s personality and prestige. Every individual now wishes to own a good automobile corresponding to his standards of beauty and prestige

A good automobile can be defined as a combination of latest technologies in all aspects, along with balance and human compatibility in application, in addition to the most beautiful visual features both as a whole and in all details.

To summarize, a car can be considered as a useful, beautiful work of art benefitting from latest technologies.

Designing a car is one of the most important stages of its production which, although seemingly simple, requires various fields of expertise to work as a team until the stage of prototype making and mass production.

In the first stage, the identity of the brand of the car and the aim of the company in developing a new product are taken into account. The relevant input comes from the strategic center of the company based on marketing input from which the lifetime of the product is evaluated in its target market. This information is finally used to determine the class of the product, leading to addition or removal of various features in engine, axles, chassis, etc. These decisions and investments made for them contribute to determination of the final cost of the automobile. Sometimes these decisions result in small changes in the appearance and body of the vehicle (Such as Iran’s Peugeot Pars compared to Peugeot 405), but as the market gets increasingly competitive, survival of a car maker requires frequent redesign of its products, in intervals of 3 to 5 years, to be able to satisfy customer demand.

Initially, based on the data from the marketing department and managerial decisions, key dimensions of the car including length, width, height, wheel base, front and rear overhang, front and rear track, along with data such as class of the product, age and gender of its users are announced to the design team. The design team decides whether to transform or “facelift” an existing product or start a new product development project. At this stage, decisions are made on the ratio of using new, creative ideas with respect to more conservative and simpler ideas used already in previous generations and the final decisions are announced to the design team. 

Initially, based on the data from the marketing department and managerial decisions, key dimensions of the car including length, width, height, wheel base, front and rear overhang, front and rear track, along with data such as class of the product, age and gender of its users are announced to the design team. The design team decides whether to transform or “facelift” an existing product or start a new product development project. At this stage, decisions are made on the ratio of using new, creative ideas with respect to more conservative and simpler ideas used already in previous generations and the final decisions are announced to the design team.

Stylist designers use all the above mentioned information to prepare initial hand sketches from different angles. At this stage traditional hand tools such as pencil, pen, marker, etc. are widely used. At this stage designs are carried out in exaggerated liberal manners. However, most of these exaggerations are balanced in later stages, although effort is made to retain them as long as issues involved in manufacturing allow. .

In the next stage, after approval is received from the teams of feasibility study, marketing, design, manufacturing, ergonomics, etc. industrial drawings are created in scales from 1/5 to 1/5 for the product. Various software tools are widely used for this stage. All ergonomic issues and dimensions are corrected until they reach their ideal values and later, the digital data are fed into CNC machines which create black box models in scales ranging from 1/5 to 1/1.

Various elements are tested on the model at this stage including aerodynamic behavior of the body, reflection of surrounding lights, etc.

At the next stage, prototypes are made for the vehicle where skillful technologists use different techniques including temporary dies and rapid prototyping to reproduce all components of the body. The prototype which is created with the utmost care can be sent to auto exhibitions where feedback from the public is evaluated.

Translated by: Ehsan Taghdiri

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