Embody Pushes Herman Miller’s Computing Envelope

When furniture manufacturer Herman Miller made the decision to produce its Embody chair in 2005, the company didn’t realize how much computing power it would need to developed 3D CAD and CAE models that could be shared with its eight suppliers. 

Through the use of PTC’s Windchill process management system, engineers were able to build a master model of the Embody running 64-bit computers with 8 GB of memory—the seatback alone has more than 10,000 features built into its model. 

“Our file sizes are getting bigger than our computers can keep up with,” says John Aldrich, vice president of product development engineering at Herman Miller. 

The team also applied ANSYS Workbench to analyze how the chair would conform to the stresses that come from varying body types.  Besides the software, Herman Miller also relied heavily on rapid prototyping service providers, including Protomold and Quickparts.  “We could not have done a project like this without all of these tools,” Aldrich adds. --KMK