Success Story

1. ALPINA
International
The Challenge
Established in 1980, ALPINA International is a leading
manufacturer of sports and sunglasses as well as high-end
frames. They are ranked as the number one producer of snow
goggles in Germany. In fact, ALPINA has over 40% market share
of snow goggles on the German domestic market. Two strong
Customer Quote
subsidiaries in Austria and Switzerland account for roughly a third
of ALPINA’s total sales volume. ALPINA products are sold via “With this new workflow,
resellers all over the world. based on thinkiD, we were
able to drastically reduce
Challenges facing ALPINA included: the time-to-market.”
The prior product development process was based on CATIA, - Martin Gehring, Product
through an external supplier, and had become too time Development, ALPINA
consuming
Management had requested a substantial reduction in time-to-
manufacture and time-to-market
Sophisticated free-form capabilities were lacking
The Solution
ALPINA’s external design bureau is a long-time user of think3
CAD technology, starting with Eureka Gold. Our solution had
been chosen because of the innovative free form capabilities, a
differentiator of think3 technology. Over time, the design bureau
migrated to thinkdesign, thinkfree and, finally, thinkiD.
“Back in 1993, I was looking for an affordable solution for PC that
allowed me to create complex free forms with different materials.
Key Results
That’s why I chose Eureka then, and that’s why I use thinkiD
now,” said Ferdinand Markt, external engineering supplier for Reduced time for the
development of tools by
ALPINA.
50%
The Story Improved integration
within the internal team
“Everything started with ‘Dangerfreak’,” says Martin Gehring, who
Shortened design cycle
is responsible for product development of the Bavarian division at
ALPINA in Southern Germany. The most complex and successful
Industry
sunglasses ever created, the Dangerfreak sunglasses were the
first tangible results of a strategic restructuring of the design and Sports, sunglasses eyewear
engineering departments. At the same time, they reflect a perfect Location
example of the requirements and characteristics in this market.
Friedberg-Derching,
Germany
“We were looking for a more immediate solution for our
engineering tasks,” adds Gehring. “In the past, the entire product
Industrial Design Customer Success Story

2. ALPINA International
The Payoff
development process had been done by an
external design bureau that used CATIA. But
Since ALPINA and the external design
we realized that this setup became more and
bureau began using thinkiD, the time-to-
more cumbersome and was the main reason
market for a product has been drastically
for delays in manufacturing. In order to
reduced. “Before thinkiD, it took two to three
reduce cycle times, we were looking for
months to develop a mold. Now we can do it
better integration with our processes. We
in 6 weeks, which means a reduction in the
found an external supplier who was already
cycle time of 50%! With this new workflow,
using think3 products, back in the days of
we were able to drastically reduce the time-
Eureka.”
to-market,” concludes Gehring.
With their sophisticated styling and
Significant positive results include:
aerodynamic needs, goggles and sunglasses
Reduced time-to-manufacturing and time-
require real expertise to shape the free-form
to-market
surfaces. “Considering the specifications from
the industrial designer, it is a real challenge
Improved integrated workflow from design
to translate these ideas into a CAD model.
to engineering and
When we talk about curvature, tangency, wall
mold making, based on
thicknesses and radii, in this context, it must
thinkiD
be possible to apply changes in small details
The creative free-form
without the need to change other parts of the
capabilities of thinkiD
model,” continues Gehring.
sped up the
At the same time, ALPINA still uses many
engineering process
physical objects. “Before we start designing in
and made designing
CAD we create a hand model as the basis for
certain shapes possible
further decisions. Only when it’s approved will
our external design and engineering bureau
start to create 3D-CAD data on the basis of
this model. Once this is done the data is sent
to our external mold maker. After some
problems with the data exchange, when we
first began using thinkiD, the entire process is
running very smoothly now.”
The majority of the products are
manufactured in Germany. “In Germany we
manufacture mainly products with a longer
life cycle because, for those products, we
have invested heavily in the tools and dies.
For lower price products we have suppliers in
East Asia that work on an OEM basis for us.”
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