CAD cuts one third off new bar designs for chocolate builder

Werner Glasser, plant engineering designer at Ritter Sport, explains that its chocolate bar line-up needs to move with the times – and says that Autodesk Inventor is helping the firm to create new shapes and sizes 30% faster. "Because it's so much faster to make changes with Inventor, we have more time to play around with new design ideas," comments Glasser. "By turning around new ideas faster, we are always ready for market shifts." He also explains that Ritter Sport is using Inventor to get realistic 3D visualisation of the chocolate bars ahead of production, as well as accelerating revisions during the design process. And the complicated parts: first, the radius of the chocolate bar shells must be small enough to retain shape, but large enough to keep air pockets from forming in the corners of the mould; second, space for fillings needs to be clear in the digital model; and third, designers need to see how the Ritter Sport logo scales on each bar design.