Teenage industrial designer create iPod product with Concentric Asia Pacific’s CATIA and advanced manufacturing

She was first exposed to CATIA through the not-for-profit organisation Re-Engineering Australia Forum which is placing world standard technology into the hands of students in order to motivate them to consider engineering and manufacturing-related career paths.

Rochelle demonstrated that young people can also grasp the fundamentals of this product to create 3D models, conduct advanced engineering analysis, and render them out. She was one of over 35,000 high schoolers using CATIA in REA Forum's ‘F1 in Schools’ challenge.

Rochelle Calf said that in 2005 CATIA was introduced into the Cheltenham Girls High School. At this time she was involved in a Technical Drawing subject where she was learning how to use CAD programmes. Rochelle Calf was selected, along with some other students, to learn how to use CATIA in order to compete in the ‘F1 in Schools Design Challenge’.

She had never heard of the challenge but enjoyed using CATIA so it seemed like a good thing to do, she said, her school team Brisk In Pink was just forming when she was asked, after doing work experience at REA, to compete in the International Final of F1 in Schools in England.

She was paired up with a student from Noosa, Daniel, and over the following 6 weeks they designed and manufactured the miniature F1 car, along with producing a design portfolio and a 5 minute verbal presentation. They ended up coming in 3rd and receiving the ‘Best Engineered Car’ award.

Once again Rochelle Calf was off to the UK to compete in the 2006 F1 in Schools International Final. This time around the team she was with received the ‘Most Innovative Design Award’. Rochelle Calf designed the iRock as part of her major design project for design and technology in her final year at high school. The task was to design and produce a product or a concept as a prototype or the real thing. She had to justify why the product was necessary through producing a design portfolio. CATIA was used along with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

CATIA enabled Rochelle Calf to model up the iRock to real life size and conduct Finite Elements Analysis tests to ensure that it was capable of holding the average human. Everything she knew about CATIA from the F1 in Schools Challenge was used in designing the iRock along with a few new aspects that she was taught while in contact with some engineers at Concentric Asia Pacific.

Rochelle Calf used the mechanical design workbench when designing and manufacturing the iRock. This helped her to save and money as she was able to conduct virtual tests and make appropriate changes without having to manufacture the iRock until she was completely happy with the design.

The next step was taking it into its physical form and this was where Rochelle Calf sought assistance from a subsidiary of Concentric called ENVIZAGE. ENVIZAGE is an advanced manufacturing centre located at the Brisbane Technology Park incorporating prototyping, investment and vacuum casting, CNC, injection moulding, and a foundry.

To make sure the parts would fit and the product would function correctly, Rochelle Calf exported her CATIA file to ENVIZAGE where it was manufactured using a process called SLS. The life size parts were strong enough to sit on. This phase of the project was also vital to Rochelle Calf in that it enabled her to adopt a make-to-cost procedure and modify the design until it met her budget.

As a student, costs are always an issue! Designs 1 and 2 were not used as they would have cost $50,000 and $15,000, respectively, to manufacture. Using CATIA Rochelle Calf was not only able to respect the style she had in mind, but was able to simplify manufacturing and assembly resulting in a final production cost of $1,500. Rochelle Calf's use of CATIA has resulted with Dassault Systemes reporting on her ingenuity on their 3DS Campus website.