Modelling the 'definitive' concept car
A Danish-led consortium of designers, prototype materials suppliers and
production companies has produced a full-size car model that is being
hailed as the definitive concept vehicle. The Libra is a super-car design
first shown at the Copenhagen Motor Show in 2004; it now takes pride of
place in the Virtual Reality Centre of a Swedish museum celebrating
engineering achievement.
Libra was created by automotive designer, Mads Odgaard, working with CAD
specialist, UGS Solutions, and EL-BO Produktion (www.el-bo.dk), one of
Denmark's leading composite mould, industrial model and sandwich panel
manufacturers. Working from the CAD data, EL-BO used its large-scale CNC
cutting facility to produce the car's substructure, which was cut from a
single block of lightweight polyurethane foam
This substructure was overlain by a modelling paste supplied by Huntsman
Advanced Materials. This RenPaste SV/HV 4503-1 material was applied by
machine to a thickness of 5 to 8mm over the entire foam substructure. It
was extruded under computer control, closely following the CAD model to
ensure minimal manual intervention at the end of the process. The paste
model was then milled to size and given a high-gloss surface finish of
metallic silver automotive paint. A black, reflective paint was used for
the windows and radiator grill, while an opaque paint was used for the
front headlights and red paint for the rear lights.