SERVICE:  Complex 3D CAD modeling and surfacing

CLIENT:  STX Lacrosse

Lacrosse heads are often very sculptural parts. To make them look great, perform well, and be manufacturable, the process requires extensive experience with 3D CAD modeling and surfacing, sensitivity to aesthetics, and a keen understanding of production materials and processes.

For example, lacrosse heads often have inconsistent wall thickness and shapes that could take from three to seven tools to mold. Expert knowledge of tooling shutoff, draft and shrink are critical to maintain the integrity of the design during manufacture.

But it’s not just looks we’re worried about. Performance is also crucial to the success of a product. Through years of designing lacrosse equipment, we’ve developed a physical and electronic benchmark system allowing us to test a design with Finite Element Analysis (FEA) even before it leaves 3D CAD modeling and surfacing. This ensures the parts’ weight-to-strength ratios are maximized. Often we’ll make small refinements to the surface model in order to optimize the part, so we build very robust CAD models allowing us to create these refinements efficiently.

By having our design, engineering, 3D CAD modeling services under the same roof, we ensured that STX got the results they were looking for.

>> See other examples of our 3D CAD modeling and surfacing.