CAD software streamlines golf club development

A PTC - Parametric Technology (UK) product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Jan 10, 2008

Mizuno had its overseas manufacturing sites use Pro/Engineer for communicating and verifying 3D models, making mass production of its new club feasible.

Mizuno has used Pro/Engineer, PTC's 3D integrated CAD/CAM/CAE software, to significantly streamline its product development process.

With Pro/Engineer, Mizuno was able to increase the speed and accuracy of information from designers to develop its new golf club, the Mizuno MP-600 Fast Track.

The Mizuno MP-600 Fast Track supports the "custom fitting" concept which has been adopted in many products in the North American and European markets, having adjustable weights in its head sole.

The driver enables the player to choose from 15 centre-of-gravity (COG) settings and change their trajectory to fades or draws by the practical width of approximately 13 yards.

Initially, the Mizuno MP-600 Fast Track development project had been discontinued because the complexity of the product shape caused production process inefficiencies, which made it impossible for Mizuno to meet its target production cost.

Subsequently, Mizuno had its overseas manufacturing sites use Pro/Engineer for communicating and verifying 3D models.

As a result, the designers were able to communicate their design intent to manufacturing and ultimately design a club head that could be mass-produced without the significant amount of time and effort previously spent on creating and verifying wooden moulds each time the design changed.

The Mizuno MP-600 Fast Track was developed using new concepts and mechanisms to improve product innovation.

Numerous virtual prototypes were created in defining the best performing design, making a variety of adjustments to the shape, depth, track location and associated COG changes.

Mizuno designers now had the ability to instantly simulate designs with new ideas and also define the optimal COG, which helped Mizuno drastically improve the efficiency of its prototyping process.

"Capturing customer needs and quickly developing the products that incorporate those needs is the most important aspect of our business".

"Product development resources are now required to have more advanced skill sets to support a product development cycle that has become increasingly shorter in recent years".

"In developing the Mizuno MP-600 Fast Track, Pro/Engineer enabled our designers to instantly determine whether the design was in line with their design concept and intent without the need for physical prototypes to validate the design".

"Pro/Engineer is now an essential part of our product development process that requires both speed and quality", said Masao Nagai, Director, Golf Product Development Department, Product Development Division, Mizuno.

"Global competition has created a tough business environment for many manufacturers and produced constant pressure to more efficiently generate quality products in shorter timeframes", said Michael Campbell, Senior Vice President, Product Management, PTC.

"Mizuno is using Pro/Engineer to increase its competitiveness by pairing digital product development with the craftsmanship that has always helped Mizuno create quality products".

Mizuno will continue to leverage Pro/Engineer in their driver product development.

They plan to integrate all the processes from design through production including common 2D drawing and 3D CAD data formats for sharing geometries, dimensions, drafts and other types of information in order to improve product development and production efficiency.