Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp develops beds for trucks with the help of Materialise RIM technique.

Erik van der Veer and Ton Kooymans
www.kooymans.nu

Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp - situated in the Netherlands (Hastelweg 222, Eindhoven) - is an industrial design bureau specialising in the development of products for the benefit of the mobility of people and goods: buses, trains, ships and agricultural machines but also street furnishings, sanitary units and signposting systems.
Kooymans' customers are often government institutions, official bodies and their suppliers.

"We put the human being (user, manufacturer, manager, etc.) at the centre for each project. This results in user-friendly, feasible and maintenance-friendly (vandal-resistant) products that contribute to a more positive society."

Procedure

To be able to meet the customers' wishes, Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp attach great value to the product development process being quick and efficient.
A good design starts with listening to, and then even more importantly, understanding the customer and the diverse usergroups. In order to work efficiently, we always phrase clear objectives in advance and handle all projects on the basis of a list of demands.
Highly experienced, our designers and engineers can easily - within certain limits often determined by technical rules - translate the customer's request into a product with the correct characteristics.
The first ideas and concepts are created in brainstorm sessions with the customer. To guarantee the functionality and actualisation of designs, we work in every phase with 3D-CAD. The software package we use depends on the application the customer requests. This way, 'fast 3D drawings' can be created as well as products with fine details and animations.

The very first drafts of one of the concepts for the construction of a bed system

Materialise and Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp

Despite all of the technological tools, it is still necessary to have tangible models for a final judgement. Large parts of complex products like caravans and buses were often milled in foam and simple steel products are produced in steel in the prototype phase.
With Materialise's help in the development of plastic products, Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp has succeeded in reducing the design process considerably and been able to judge the feasibility of the project at an earlier stage.
In many projects, we have used designs made in Stereolithography, selective laser sintering and Vacuum Casting to discuss form, use, dimensions and funtionality. Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp and Materialise have often defined the limits of what's possible and even pushed back frontiers…
The RIM technique in combination with a first stereolithography model, built on the Mammoth machine, was the ideal solution for a large series of parts with large dimensions.

Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp - Berco - Scania truck bed project

Recently, Scania has brought the new truckcabin R-series onto the market. Berco BV (Schijndel - the Netherlands), manufacturer of truckbeds, chair coverings and car mats amongst other things, was commissioned by Scania to develop different beds for this particular cabin. Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp has supported Berco with this project and has supervised the whole product development process. All stages involved a close cooperation between the three companies: from brainstorm sessions in Sweden, over ideas and concept phase, to the delivery of prototypes and 0-series.

The first phases were dedicated to appointing the requirements and demands of the product and to the visualisation of different concepts. After this, different prototypes of the bed were built: after a first milled synthetic prototype and different alterations in functionality, a set of vacuum formed models were made.

Since both prototypes were not fully functional, it was difficult to make a final judgement on the design. An important restriction to building a functional prototype were the measurements of the synthetic scale model. The dimensions were no less than 100x800x2000mm, which would lead to extremely high mould costs. .
Because of the product weight, the costs and the requirement to produce several types of beds in one mould, we chose structural foaming as production technique. Just as with high-pressure injection moulding , various functions like living hinges can be successfully integrated in the design.

The complexity and dimensions of all units in a truck cabin make it inevitable that continual communication with the customers and suppliers with the help of 3D CAD models would be necessary. These CAD models can be analysed on weight, stiffness and strength. Thanks to the CAD software, we could check static or dynamic interference conflicts with parts that were developed by Scania or other parties (e.g. chairs and wall panels).
Also here, there is a need for tangible parts in the different stages of the project. As the different types of beds and accessories materials vary between heavy steel parts, aluminium and synthetic injection moulded products, Kooymans Industrieel | Ontwerp assigned the help of Materialise's services in prototyping some of these parts.
In the final phase of the project, we needed 20 to 50 pieces of the product for test runs at Scania. Two out of three bed types had to be delivered urgently: an upper- and underbed. The complete beds include a plastic support with mattress, safety nets, belts for suspension, hinge clasps and gas springs, and in addition for the upperbed a folding ladder and for the lower bed a couple of extending bed wideners. Berco's suppliers could supply the various units and Berco manufactured the mattresses but a huge structural foamproduct like this could not be delivered in such a short term.

The lower bed with extending bed wideners. In the centre is a case for stowing the safety net. The ribs make the entity stronger and - together with the holes - take care of the cooling of the mattress.