So what's the body of the Chrysler Intrepid going to look like in five
years? You're not going to find out by looking in magazines, but Norm Robbins,
a car body designer, could give you a pretty detailed description of its hind
end.
Robbins is responsible for shaping the sheet metal frame around the components
in the rear end of many of the cars Chrysler puts out. "It's my job to work
on all of the sheet metal on the rear of the car and on the underbody," he
says.
Robbins can't just come up with a pleasing shape that he thinks will make
the car look sharp on the road. He has many, many things to consider when
he sits down at his computer to draw up the plan.
Robbins has to consider the added weight of any of his design changes,
and he has to think about what increasing or decreasing the size of a part
will mean to the structural integrity of the car. But that's not all.
"I have to consider where the fuel line will be, where the exhaust is.
I have to think about the suspension packages and the interior: they all have
to fit," he says. "It's a tight squeeze."
Many designers and engineers work on different parts of the car at the
same time. "It's a huge combined, synchronized effort to put it together,"
says Robbins. If one designer changes the size of the fuel tank, then other
designers have to go back and change their work as well.
"I have to consider all areas of the car because everybody attaches to
the sheet metal," he says. "I'm trapped because each designer has their own
package that they envision in the car, whether it's how the radio fits in
the system or the fuel line."
Robbins has to accommodate them all. "It's a lot of trickery and technique
to coordinate all of their designs into a tight space without compromising
my own."
In fact, Robbins spends almost half of his time discussing design packages
with various engineers. In the 18 months that he'll spend designing the rear
end of a car, he will be in contact with people from the suspension department
and the brakes department, as well as with electrical and structural engineers.
Car body designers have daily meetings with other designers and engineers
to discuss new approaches and to focus on improvements. "We meet to answer
questions about whether a trial on a design worked well or not, and whether
we want to change it or not," says Robbins.
Even with the daily meetings, some surprises occur late in the development
and production stages of the car. "For example, we had a federal mandate to
have vapor recovery systems in all the cars," says Robbins. "It had to be
crammed in somewhere."
Even at the production stage, parts will come back that need to be changed.
If one part is changed, it will inevitably lead to changing others to accommodate
it. A designer is usually left trying to find a place to put it.
Robbins has enough experience to know the technique of jigging a system
so that it will fall together. Designer Jerry Richard says experience is the
only thing that's going to make a car body designer competent.
"You can't learn by watching over someone's shoulder on a computer," says
Richard. Because of the growing use of computers in car design, a designer
has to learn the skills at college, and then come into the business and get
experience.
When Richard first started out as a car body designer, the education requirements
were much different. Designers weren't required to get an associate's degree
in computer-aided design or take engineering courses.
Programs that were available to Richard in high school have since changed.
"When I was a youngster, I spent my high school years at Henry Ford trade
school, but it's long closed down," he says. Richard went to school for 48
weeks of the year. For every one week that he was in school, he spent another
at the factory.
"It added up to almost two years of work experience," says Richard. The
experience, however, wasn't in car design, but in the running of the factory.
"We did everything from running the machines, cutting wood patterns and other
shop activities. The only things we didn't do were assembly line type jobs."
After working on the floor, Richard decided he'd prefer to be designing
the parts rather than tooling them. He went into drafting and hasn't turned
back.
Even though the training is different today, Christine Parry, a car body
designer, says getting shop experience is a big boost in learning to design
cars. "It's always good to learn different processes of how things are made,"
she says.
Part of Parry's training at community college included courses in manufacturing,
to learn about construction processes and materials. In addition to taking
college courses, Parry is currently gaining work experience at a car body
design company.
"I'm working in an entry-level position," she says. "Most of the actual
designing is done by someone else. I check to make sure parts are put together
properly and that there's enough clearance between the parts."
As Parry progresses as a designer, she expects to have more
input into actual designs. "Right now, I'm putting all the notes on drawings
and making all the corrections, but things will change. With more experience,
designers are given more latitude."