Ogle!

Thanks must go to Ivan who arranged an extremely interesting afternoon with Tom Karren at Ogle.

It turned out to be time well spent, with Tom giving us a very polished run down on the history of Ogle design followed by a tour around the prototype development units. The technology used today makes 3D models by laying down layers of plastic or resin, a few microns thick at a time, to build up very intricate objects. One example was a ball within a ball within a ball on a spiral stand; other pieces included statues and car fasciae.

It was interesting to see however that they still produced prototypes by milling out pieces of polycarbonate or by forming blocks of plastic.

I know I should say that the best part of the day was meeting up with old friends but in fact it was the crash dummy canter, come to think of it the dummies did remind me of some old friends! The centre is where specials are made that require greater skill and care than the parent factory can produce out in Germany. The processes used reproduce forms from babies to adults to the correct size, weight and muscle tone. It's quite an experience to hold a dummy of a three- month-old child that feels so life like.

Other specials included the new definitive size 12 bust for one of the main highstreet stores and a sensitised dummy used to practice body searching.

Tom noticed the Bond Bug pin badge on my lapel and was really taken aback when I gave it to him as a keepsake, I know I have a spare one at home somewhere.

In all, a great day out. Thanks again to everyone that helped make it so.

Dave Longstaff

FURTHER PICTURES:

Some of the pictures used as a story board by Tom to relate the history of Ogle, of particular interest is the draft diagram thet tom made to show the proposed changes in design for a new Bug.

The following pictures show a very early development model, early sketches and prototypes followed by production sketches and the final result we have all grown to love!