Autodesk Helps Fiberforge Design Manufacturing System for Lightweight Product Components

Clean Tech Firm Uses AutoCAD Electrical to Help Design Manufacturing System for Lightweight Product Components.

SAN RAFAEL, Calif — Fiberforge is using software from Autodesk, Inc to design its patented RELAY Station, which produces lighter, stronger, more resilient, recyclable materials for consumer products and industrial machinery.

The Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program, which provides software grants for emerging clean tech companies in North America and Europe, is helping Fiberforge explore numerous design alternatives for the RELAY Station. Fiberforge used AutoCAD Electrical software to design and build the electrical controls for the RELAY Station. Part of the Autodesk solution for Digital Prototyping, AutoCAD Electrical combines AutoCAD functionality with features specifically for electrical applications.

“AutoCAD Electrical alerts our engineers to design errors as they occur, which helps us eliminate costly errors before the build phase begins,” said David Cramer, chief operating officer and chief technology officer at Fiberforge. “Since we joined the Autodesk Clean Tech Partner Program, our engineers can better design electrical controls circuits based on functional requirements and automate many electrical engineering tasks, helping to save hours of effort.”

Fiberforge is a spin-off of the Rocky Mountain Institute, under the direction of Chairman and Chief Scientist Amory Lovins. The core of Fiberforge’s vision is “lightweighting,” the practice of designing and creating a significantly lighter product that still satisfies appropriate standards for strength, performance, appearance and safety. Lightweighting can be particularly useful in the automotive space because a lighter car uses less fuel.

Fiberforge uses composite processing that enables high-volume, low-cost production of parts not only for car bodies, but for everything from portable computers to aircraft parts. With this, the company is quickly becoming a leading supplier of advanced manufacturing technology and parts made from stronger, lighter materials. The company’s RELAY Station can produce a single part in less than three minutes.

With the accuracy and efficiency of designing the RELAY Station’s electrical controls digitally, Fiberforge significantly reduced the need for multiple physical prototypes, thereby speeding time to market.

“Fiberforge’s manufacturing system is enabling affordable production of lightweight, advanced composite parts,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Autodesk Manufacturing Industry Group. “It’s exciting to see how Fiberforge adopted Digital Prototyping to help innovate faster and deliver its breakthrough RELAY station to multiple industries.”