Renowned German Chocolate Company Uses Digital Prototyping to Design Bars 30 Percent Faster
SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — November 17, 2010 — Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ: ADSK) has named Germany’s Ritter Sport — producer of the square chocolate bar of the same name — as Autodesk Inventor of the Month for November. The renowned company uses Autodesk software to more quickly change its candy bar designs.
Renowned German chocolate company, Ritter Sport, uses digital prototyping to design bars 30 percent faster. (Photo: Business Wire)
While the company’s famous 100-gram chocolate square remains an unchanging staple of its product lineup, Ritter Sport consistently responds to consumer demand for new shapes and sizes. Autodesk Inventor software helps the company create new designs 30 percent faster than previously to more quickly respond to market trends.
“Because it’s so much faster to make changes with Inventor, we have more time to play around with new design ideas,” said Werner Glasser, a plant engineering designer at Ritter Sport. “By turning around new ideas faster, we are always ready for market shifts.”
With more than 30 varieties and many different chocolate bar sizes currently available on the market — from the 250-gram super format to the 8-gram cube — Ritter Sport has effectively anticipated a wide variety of consumer preferences.
Visualizing with 3D Digital Prototyping
Ritter Sport adopted Autodesk Inventor software to achieve realistic 3D visualization of the chocolate bars, as well as accelerate revisions during the design process.
Beginning with the shell of the candy bar, designers go straight to Inventor to build 3D digital prototypes. The radius of the chocolate shells must be small enough to retain the desired shape, yet large enough to keep air pockets from forming in the corners of the mold. The mold must also make it possible for the bars to be removed easily after they have cooled.
Most Ritter Sport bars have fillings, such as nougat or marzipan, inside the chocolate shell, as well as nuts. That space must be included in the digital model. As a final area of visualization and simulation, designers must understand how the Ritter Sport logo will scale on each bar when the size of the bar changes.
“Every successful manufacturer relies on the ingenuity of its research, development and engineering teams to create the next great product with the utmost speed and cost-effectiveness,” said Robert “Buzz” Kross, senior vice president, Manufacturing Industry Group at Autodesk. “Digital Prototyping helps Ritter Sport designers spend more time iterating to find the best designs and, ultimately, have the confidence that they are creating the best chocolate.”
About the Autodesk Inventor of the Month Program
Each month, Autodesk selects an Inventor of the Month from the users of Autodesk Inventor software, which takes manufacturers beyond 3D to Digital Prototyping. Winners are chosen for engineering excellence and groundbreaking innovation. For more information about Autodesk Inventor of the Month, contact us at Email Contact.
About Ritter Sport
Headquartered in Waldenbuch, Germany, Ritter Sport is the producer of the iconic Ritter Sport chocolate bar. Founded in 1912, the family owned business now produces 2.5 million chocolate bars daily, employs 800 people and exports products to 90 countries. For additional information, visit www.ritter-sport.us/#/en_US/home.
About Autodesk
Autodesk, Inc., is a leader in 3D design, engineering and entertainment software. Customers across the manufacturing, architecture, building, construction, and media and entertainment industries – including the last 15 Academy Award winners for Best Visual Effects – use Autodesk software to design, visualize and simulate their ideas. Since its introduction of AutoCAD software in 1982, Autodesk continues to develop the broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art software for global markets. For additional information about Autodesk, visit www.autodesk.com.
An interview with Ritter Sport is available on the Autodesk YouTube Channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qenUaom83Kg.
Autodesk, AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, and Inventor are registered trademarks or trademarks of Autodesk, Inc., and/or its subsidiaries and/or affiliates in the USA and/or other countries. Academy Award is a registered trademark of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. All other brand names, product names or trademarks belong to their respective holders. Autodesk reserves the right to alter product and services offerings, and specifications and pricing at any time without notice, and is not responsible for typographical or graphical errors that may appear in this document.
© 2010 Autodesk, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Contact:
Autodesk, Inc.
Clay Helm, 415.547.2425
Email Contact
or
for Ritter Sport
Christian Strebe, +49 (89) 45 22 78 17
Email Contact
