Industrial plasticine is a modeling material which is mainly used by

automotive design Automotive design is the process of developing the appearance (and to some extent the ergonomics) of motor vehicles, including automobiles, motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans. The functional design and development of a modern mot ...

studios. It was developed as an industrial version of

Plasticine Plasticine is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. Though originally a brand name for the British version of the product, it is now applied generically in English as a product category ...

or hobby clay. Industrial plasticine is based on wax and typically contains

sulfur Sulfur ( American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphur ( Commonwealth spelling) is a chemical element; it has symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms ...

, which gives a characteristic smell to most artificial clays. The styled object can be used to create

mould A mold () or mould () is one of the structures that certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi ...

s. However, largely because sulfur interfered with some mould-making processes, especially if clay surfaces are unsealed surfaces and platinum-cure room-temperature–vulcanizing silicone was used, sulfur-free variants are now available; these are usually much lighter than sulfur-containing clays. If a negative mold is required, this data is sent to a

milling machine Milling is the process of machining using rotary cutters to remove material by advancing a cutter into a workpiece. This may be done by varying directions on one or several axes, cutter head speed, and pressure. Milling covers a wide variety of ...

Design studios

Before a new car model is launched, a long period of creating the right design takes place. Even today,

computer models Computer simulation is the running of a mathematical model on a computer, the model being designed to represent the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be determin ...

are not sufficient to evaluate a design. Therefore 1:4 and then 1:1 models are built to get an impression of the final car. These models are created in clay, and usually consist of a wooden or iron frame which is covered with

Styrofoam Styrofoam is a brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam (XPS), manufactured to provide continuous building insulation board used in walls, roofs, and foundations as thermal insulation and as a water barrier. This material is light blue in ...

. Clay is smoothed over the foam. Modellers then use various tools and slicks to finalize the shape of the car, since changes are readily possible. More recently, clay models are 3D scanned into a digital file using laser technology. This is then opened in

computer-aided design Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...

software to be worked further.

Suppliers

There are three main producers of industrial plasticine operating worldwide: *

Staedtler Staedtler SE () is a German multinational stationery manufacturing company based in Nuremberg. The firm was founded by J.S. Staedtler (1800–1872) in 1835 and produces a large variety of stationery products, such as writing implements (includin ...

, of Germany, which is also known for FIMO. * * BOMI is located in Shanghai and is known for its production of industrial clays. * Chavant, which was founded by the French chemist Claude Chavant and is now located in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, USA.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Plasticine, industrial Vehicle design Modelling clay