The Los Angeles Auto Show was the venue for the world premiere of Volkswagen’s latest concept vehicle. The two-seat, three-wheel GX3 is a radical departure from the ordinary. This crossover between sports car and motorcycle promises a special driving experience and lots of head turning. Martina Methner reports.
The Los Angeles Auto Show was the venue for the world premiere of Volkswagen’s latest concept vehicle. The two-seatthree-wheel GX3 is a radical departure from the ordinary. This crossover between sports car and motorcycle promises a special driving experience and lots of head turning. Martina Methner reports.
Down to the smallest detailnothing about the VolkswagenGX3 is ordinary. Typifying the design goals is the stainless steel gear lever or shifter knob that Volkswagen calls its ‘centre jewel’. According to Volkswagen North America’s chief designerDerek Jenkinsshow attendees were intrigued by the shifter knob and were prone to ask: “How did you do that?” which is exactly what VW Design Center team wanted. The answer to the question is Direct Metal Laser-Sintering (DMLS) from EOS.
Based on the response at the Los Angeles Auto Showit appears that Jenkins and his design team have exceeded this goal. As the design of the GX3 began taking shapeattention shifted to the knob. The design team wanted something extraordinaryso it set out to put a modern twist on the VW Golf GTI’s golf
ball-shaped shifter knob. Using modern technologythe designers conceived of a hollowlightweight appearance that retained the design form of the GTI shifter knob. To support the interior cockpit designVW also wanted a metallic finish that matched the trim and accents.
To realise the visionthe design team turned to DMLS for the manufacture of a 17-4 stainless steel shifter knob made on an EOSINTM270 system.
VW knew that CNC machining could not produce the design and other rapid prototyping and manufacturing systems could not deliver the look and feel that the company wanted.
Delivered with a shot peened finishVolkswagen turned the shifter knob on a lathe and tapped a hole for a set screw. The reason for turning the shifter knob wasin partthat VW wanted a machined finish that matched the appearance of the other metallic cockpit components. Jenkins said: “I was amazed at how well it machined. It was fully dense with the properties of billet material.”
Jenkins cites the shifter knob as an example of the technology freeing the design team’s creativity. “Without this technologyour designs were constrainedeven limitedby what traditional manufacturing technologies could produce” stated Jenkins. He also commented thatdue to tooling coststhe design team would face opposition anytime it specified an injection molded part. These comments elicited Jenkins’ musing of the future: “With this technologywill anyone be injection molding parts ten years from now?”
In the futurefor large-scale production demandsJenkins acknowledges that injection moldingdie casting and similar high-volume processes will still be needed. Howeverhe does predict that the industry is moving towards e-Manufacturingthe fastflexible and cost-efficient production directly from CAD data.
“Rapid prototyping has come a long way since the early days when it was exotic and expensive. It is now a standard part of the design process” Jenkins said. He foreseesand is anxiously awaitingthe same developments in e-Manufacturing. “I believe that the technology will progress from a prototyping tool to a manufacturing process.”
Volkswagen is planning an extensive accessory programme that will let owners customise and personalise their GX3s. Should the GX3 become a staple on dealer lotsand when the accessory program kicks inJenkins believes that VWor a third partywill likely offer DMLS shifter knobs in stainless steeltitanium or any other material that EOS has available.
Volkswagen’s decision to make the GX3 a production vehicle hinges on the response from the market. And while no decision has been made public yetthe reaction the car received at the Los Angeles Auto Show has made the prospects of a 2007 launch of the GX3 a real possibility.
Martina Methner is with EOS GmbH Electro Optical SystemsKraillingMunichGermany. www.eos.info
“
