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Toymaker Turns to 3D

Radio Flyer uses SolidWorks to update classic designs, develop new ideas.

by Sara Ferris | Published September 5, 2007

 Radio Flyer (Chicago, IL) knows the value of timeless product designs—the 90-year-old toy company is best known for its classic red wagon. But even classic designs must be refined and reworked to meet changing market requirements. Radio Flyer uses SolidWorks software from SolidWorks (Concord, MA) to update its existing products and develop new ones.

Radio Flyer's Inchworm was updated with a new, safer bounce-and-go mechanism.

Radio Flyer used SolidWorks 3D CAD software and COSMOSWorks Designer analysis software to design, analyze, and refine numerous iterations to produce its recently relaunched Inchworm—a popular ride-on toy from the 1970s brought up to date with a new, safer bounce-and-go mechanism.
Radio Flyer president Robert Pasin told Playthings magazine that the company decided to revamp the toy after seeing original Inchworms commanding hefty prices on eBay.

The company also used SolidWorks and COSMOSWorks on My First Scooter. The new foldable toy has two wideset front wheels for stability and a tapered platform that, unlike other scooters, ensures the child’s foot clears the back wheel with each kick. COSMOSWorks Designer helped the company determine the optimum design of the blow-molded platform for strength and rider comfort.

My First Scooter is a new Radio Flyer design that was modeled in SolidWorks. It features wide front wheels for stability.
“We couldn’t imagine doing our work without SolidWorks. It lets us quickly develop, prototype, and optimize sophisticated designs – like the shape of the handlebars or the action of the bounce-and-go – then rapidly complete them,” said Tom Schlegel, Radio Flyer’s vice-president of product development. “If our founder, Antonio Pasin, who hand-built wagons in his cabinet shop, could see us churning out exciting new toys using high-tech tools like SolidWorks software, I know he’d be very proud.”

Radio Flyer uses SolidWorks surfacing capabilities to quickly design shaped parts – a tricycle saddle, for example – that in the past would have been hand-carved and patterned prior to molding.

Manufacturing partners in China use SolidWorks for seamless collaboration with Schlegel’s team in Chicago. Radio Flyer is using PDMWorks data management software to control file versions as the company adds designers and engineers to its growing team. Schlegel credits SolidWorks’ ease of use and his reseller’s training techniques for quickly making new employees productive on SolidWorks.

Sources: Press materials received from the company and additional information gleaned from the company's website.