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Manufacturing
Turning your ideas into 3D CAD files, 3D prints, prototypes and 1000s of manufactured parts for more than 19 years!
One of the things that we love about our job here at J – CAD Inc. is just how exciting and varied the projects we get to work on are. Even though we offer the same core services to all our different clients, it’s always exciting and interesting to find out how they will use our services, and what problems we can help them solve in their businesses.
A recent example of this was a project that we did for the Ritz Carlton, to do with a scale model of their cruising yacht name “Azora”.
At the Ritz Carlton they have a 1:200 scale model of Azora on display in a glass case. It’s a beautiful model, and was no doubt pretty costly to get made!
Sometimes they have to move the model around, and unfortunately in one move the model came loose from its stand and was badly damaged during shipping. Basically even though the model was packed in foam peanuts, as it moved around in transit and came loose, sections of the model were impacted and punctured.
You can see some of the damage it sustained below:
Getting this damage repaired at a model repair company was undoubtedly expensive as well and the model could not be on display for some time, a situation the Ritz Carlton obviously wanted to avoid repeating in the future!
The Ritz Carlton contacted us with an idea to create a custom foam enclosure that could encase the model when it was in transit so that there was no way it could sustain similar impact damage in the future and the model would remain safe and intact.
The first step for us in this project was to pick up the model from the model repair company located close to Toronto, Canada and then to 3D scan it.
Commercial / industrial 3D scanning is essentially the process of using special cameras to take a 360 degree view of a physical object. These cameras then translate the physical object into a 3D CAD file. This is an alternate way of creating a CAD file, as opposed to building it using 3D CAD design software.
This is what the 3D CAD STEP file that was created from the model looked like:
Once we had the scan we manipulated the file to create a negative “mold” for the model, which would keep it securely fixed to its platform in transit.
We then took this STEP file, and fed it into a manufacturing machine we use to carve out the design in high quality foam to perfectly fit the model’s contours.
This is what it looked like!
And the protective foam in action:
The Ritz Carlton were very happy that their model is not going to get damaged in transit anymore!
If you have a project you’ve been thinking about we’d love to hear about it. You may find that completing it will be more affordable and quicker than you imagine, and if you’re not sure if it will work run the idea past us, we’ll let you know if there will be any issues, and can even make some suggestions for how to make your project a reality in a more efficient or affordable way.
Fill out our quote request form, give us a call on 1-888-202-2052 or use the live chat in the bottom right of the screen to get in touch.
If you’d rather make a foam mold for fiberglass click here.
Jason Vander Griendt is a Mechanical Engineering Technician with years of experience working at major companies such as SNC Lavalin Inc, Hatch Ltd. Siemens and Gerdau Ameristeel. He is the CEO of JCAD – Inc., a company he started in 2006 after seeing a gap in the market for businesses who could assist clients through the entire product design and manufacturing process.
Jason has been featured in Forbes, has had his businesses analyzed and discussed in multiple start-up books, was a previous winner of the Notable8 Digital Innovator of the year award, and is a regular guest on business panels and podcasts. Email Jason at or follow him on LinkedIn.
