A Design For Life: 3D Scanning and Modelling
Hands up: who knows how Evotech Performance began? In the past 20 years, the company has grown from a little-known brand in the UK to a worldwide name in premium motorcycle parts and accessories. But just how did it all start? The answer is simple: a tail tidy.
Motorcycle enthusiast Managing Director, Chris Vines, had taken delivery of a Honda CBR954RR Fireblade and the rear end just wasn’t up to par. Searching online, there wasn’t a part fit for the job. The solution was simple. As a time-served sheet metal engineer with all the necessary materials and machinery right in front of him, Chris made his own. That first tail tidy proved highly popular and, with Managing Director Dan Rack and parent company founder Rob Drury on board, Evotech Performance came to life.
Fast forward 20 years, it is fair to say Chris’s tail tidies are still as popular today. With Chris and Dan in the cockpit, the Evotech Performance product range continues to widen, embracing new production technologies and materials to offer the highest quality motorcycle parts manufactured and distributed from the rural county of Lincolnshire, in the UK.
Chris and Dan began their working life on the tools, learning the complexities of working with metals, shaping, bending, welding and finishing a variety of products. Designs were drawn on paper and measurements were taken by hand. If you have ever tried to take a motorcycle’s internal measurements with a ruler and a vernier gauge, you will understand how time consuming this can prove to be. In Dan’s vernacular, the parts were ‘knife and forked’ with trial and error, making and remaking prototypes until a design they were satisfied with came along. Right from the start, their pursuit of perfection has held strong. Evotech Performance motorcycle parts need to be fit for purpose, stylish and discreet but manufactured to the highest standards for structural integrity, durability and reliability.
As the company grew, so did the production team, training new members of the Evotech staff in manufacturing processes, quality control, and powder-coating. Naturally, Chris and Dan became drawn to exploring new technologies to support their designs. This began in 2005 dipping a toe in the world of 3D CAD with Co-Create One Space software. The jump from 2D to 3D proved successful and, in 2007, Evotech Performance invested in its first 3D printer, greatly reducing production times of vital prototypes.
Soon after, in 2008, with confidence and skill levels in 3D modelling greatly increased, the team chose to switch design software to industry standard SolidWorks. The final piece of the puzzle arrived in 2012, when Chris and Dan took delivery of Evotech’s first 3D handheld scanner.
Now on their fourth scanner*, it is clear to see the transformation this decision has brought. Within hours of a new motorcycle model arriving at the design studio, the metrology of the machine has been recorded, and the designers can get to work with the digitised data. Now using a Creaform Black Elite, Evotech’s 4-person design team have full training, development and support from the Creaform’s UK-suppliers. Surprisingly, scanning a motorcycle has proven a mindful process, sweeping the arm slowly and methodically from front end to chassis to tail. This designer’s tai chi-style performance allows the scanner to produce an intricate pattern of 3D measurements from the original geometry of the machine but also targets (reflective white discs) placed onto the motorcycle.
Taking 1.3 million measurements per second from a mesh of 22 blue lazer lines, the Black Elite can create a 3D image to 0.025mm measurement resolution. Compliant to ISO standard 17025, ‘competence of testing and calibration laboratories’, the scanner’s accuracy and reliability is proven by Evotech’s day-in, day-out production of accurately fitting motorcycle parts. The imagery collected is supported by Creaform’s in-house software, which exports the captured data, including solid model details, to Evotech’s ever-improving design software SolidWorks. A far cry from the days of pen and paper.
SolidWorks has proven itself time and again to be the software package for the job in CAD design. With specific tools for sheet metal design, surface designing for more ergonomic products and a prepared range of standard components and smart fasteners (you wouldn’t want to be drawing an M8 bolt each time!) Dan and Chris have been able to push the boundaries of their designs. The program provides a smooth transition between layers of the 3D model, finding spaces and places for Evotech’s after-market parts to be introduced, holding firm to a motto of no modifications to the motorcycle or drilling of fairings.
Chris maintains his crown as king of tail tidy design whilst Dan has forged his way to specialise in crash protection, each heavily relying on the original scan to design and test new products. Gone are the days of trial and error; the time from screen to prototype, testing to production has dramatically reduced. Another benefit of the scanning has allowed for further areas of product development, adding new products to the range.
Yet Chris and Dan retain a pinch of magic that many product designers may have missed. The years spent on the workshop floor, manufacturing from sheet and bar metal, stainless steel, aluminium, sometimes even copper, have taught invaluable lessons in respecting the metal. It is a 360-degree understanding of how a product can look on the screen and succeed in reality. An understanding they are now passing on to the next generation of the Evotech Performance design team.
And what of the first tail tidy? Sadly, we no longer have on sale an Evotech Tail Tidy for the Honda CBR954RR Fireblade. Yet the tail tidy remains one of the highest sellers, with over 500 available on the Evotech Performance website. Never compromising on quality, our 3D scans allow for bespoke products for each motorcycle ensuring an accurate fit and quality our customers trust and turn to time and again.