"StudioTools Helped to Transform the Image of the Company"
Why can’t something as industrial and rugged as a transport trailer
refrigeration unit meet customer performance needs and look good too? Why
not, thought an energetic team of engineers and designers at Thermo King® in
Minneapolis, Minn. So they threw out some of the old conventions; looked at the
challenge in new ways; and discovered that style sells – even in the transport
refrigeration industry.
Thermo King, a unit of Ingersoll-Rand, was so delighted with its new product
that it entered the design in the Industrial Designers Society of
America/Business Week® IDEA2001 competition. The IDSA® was impressed, awarding
Thermo King a Gold IDEA for the SB-200/SB-300 series of transport refrigeration
units. The judges found Thermo King designers "were daring enough to make a
bold statement with design, yet smart enough to improve on the more utilitarian
features required by end users."
The award winning Thermo King SB Series Truck Refrigeration Unit Designed with
StudioTools. Note the colorful, injection molded grill.
Photo Credit: Thermo King Corporation
Off the Map Exploration
Tom Flanagan, Thermo King Industrial Designer, believes StudioToolsTM
had much to do with the success of the new styling direction. He explains,
"The SB-200/SB-300 Series was a complete departure from our traditional
market image. Due to significant changes in new tractor styling (e.g.
Freightliner, Ford and Kenworth) in recent years, we sought a highly streamlined
and organic form from day one.
"After importing the necessary reference
geometry from Pro-Engineer, I was able to quickly generate a number of possible
design schemes in Studio. It’s such a fluid program that I could immediately
begin creating some basic design surfaces to stimulate some early excitement for
a new design direction. For me, these are the strongest attributes of
StudioTools: ease of use, to create preliminary designs as quickly as possible,
and excellent rendering tools to help build a rapid consensus. I usually don’t
sketch much first; I usually just go straight into StudioTools because there are
few barriers in the program to my creativity."
An early rendering in StudioTools shows the basic shape of the new product.
Photo Credit: Thermo King Corporation
This open-ended approach to design helped Flanagan create a sleek, organic
design, with soft edges and aerodynamic shapes that complement the latest
tractor designs, including a radical new grill design with elliptical openings
in place of the company’s traditional rectangular-grid pattern. In addition,
the use of injection-molding made it possible to manufacture the grills in a
wide range of vibrant, custom colors; as well as chrome plating for the
"owner-operator" segment of the market. So customers can either stick
with the standard colors (black, gray or white) or, alternatively, bust right
out of the mold and show some personality!
This StudioTools rendering shows the new design emerging from the
"cocoon" of its predecessor.
Photo Credit: Thermo King Corporation
"I’m a big fan of both organic design and color," says Flanagan.
"Even in a market as utilitarian as ours, I believe that people still
respond emotionally to a more contemporary look. Our new product shows that, as
long as we can deliver on superior function, there is no reason why the form
itself should not be equally desirable."
Fine Tuning by Consensus
While up-to-date styling was a major priority, overall performance was of yet
greater import to the Thermo King team. They wanted to make significant
improvements in "pull-down" -- the ability to drive the temperature of
the trailer to the set point in the shortest possible time; to provide greater
overall cooling performance for deep-frozen applications; to improve
serviceability of the unit; and to reduce the perceived noise level. In order to
address these physical requirements along with outer package styling goals,
several departments within Thermo King crossed ideological boundaries and began
working more closely together.
Over the following months, as form and function issues were identified and
improved upon, Alias® StudioTools models and renderings were evaluated by
design engineers, drafters, manufacturing engineers, and marketing professionals
at Thermo King. "That’s the great power of StudioTools," explains
Flanagan. "We can work together on a virtual mockup of a new product and
still have full confidence in the downstream manufacturability of the design. In
addition, because of the "construction history" in StudioTools, we can
tweak here and there without having to rebuild the entire design from scratch,
and resolve clearance issues in a very short space of time."
This interdisciplinary approach led to a number of innovative technology
solutions. The new grills not only added a stylish look to the unit, but were
also designed to minimize high frequency, directional noise. A new "Whisper
Quiet" noise package reduced decibel levels as well. One customer even
reported recently that his drivers were arguing with each other about who gets
to operate the new SB-200 series-equipped rigs because the difference in
perceived noise level is so significant over the previous generation.
New Day for Thermo King
Today the new Thermo King SB-200/SB-300 refrigeration units are easily
identifiable, from the sleek grills to their whisper-quiet operation. Customers
appreciate the significant increase in temperature control performance, coupled
with the new level of serviceability. Moreover, they also praise the overall
style and dramatic use of color. "We’ve transformed the image of Thermo
King," claims Flanagan, "and StudioTools made it possible."
