Product News: Carbon’s Design Engine software
Carbon announced that all of its subscribers now have access to the Carbon Design Engine software to automate the process of creating performance-oriented lattices, saving design engineers significant time and effort. The lattice-generating technology powering Design Engine has been proven in production with the design of critical lattice products like the Resolution Medical Lattice Swabs developed for COVID-19 testing, Specialized S-Works Power Saddle with Mirror technology, and CCM Super Tacks X helmets.
“Traditional CAD tools have not kept pace with the innovation of 3D printers and materials. This lack of progression limits the ‘idea to design’ stage of the product development lifecycle. With the release of Design Engine to all Carbon subscribers, we are helping designers iterate through their design thinking, faster,” said Phil DeSimone, chief product and business development officer. “On average it can take 18-24 months to bring a consumer product to market. But when we put the best design tools, 3D printers and materials in the hands of designers and manufacturers, we’ve seen our customers accelerate the development of innovative new products—going from idea to finished designs to production in less time.”
3D printing enables the production of latticed parts that can deliver considerable mechanical performance advantages beyond those that can be produced via traditional production methods. However, traditional design tools are limited in their additive manufacturing support, per Carbon, particularly for complex geometries like lattices, which makes designing functional parts difficult. To simplify lattice design generation, Carbon developed the Carbon Design Engine to collaborate on design projects with customers, and has now made it available for all subscribers to access directly.
“Working with Carbon allowed CCM to leverage its innovation pipeline to launch something the industry had never seen before in the Super Tacks X helmet. Carbon technology has evolved, enriched, and accelerated our approach to product design allowing us to go from idea to production at record pace,” said Jeff Dalzell, vice president of product creation at CCM Hockey. “Within days of prototyping with the Design Engine, we gained creative insights into even more applications for performance-oriented lattices in our future product lines.”
The cloud-based application provides the computational power to generate complex shapes quickly and efficiently without requiring local resources, per its maker. Design Engine software has a fully interactive user interface and offers product teams the ability to produce five different types of conformal lattices. The software creates conformal lattices that robustly populate even the most challenging design surfaces, eliminating the tedious design revisions post-generation.
“Carbon has revolutionized the manufacturing industry with the massive breakthrough in 3D printers and expansive materials. This next move to democratize design software will elevate and expand the types of parts and products designers can create in a shorter amount of time,” said Tim Greene, research director at IDC. “Carbon is presenting design tools that speed the product development cycle while producing a better result.”
