Case Study: Australian Institute of Sport achieves precision, repeatable custom kayak fitouts for Olympic slalom athletes with 3D Systems

Kayak Slalom Presents Olympic Engineering Challenge

3D Systems’ case study highlights how Creaform, Geomagic and WYSIWYG partnered with the Australian Institute of Sport to solve a critical equipment challenge for the canoe slalom team: creating precise, repeatable custom kayak fitouts that improve force transfer between athlete and boat. Traditional foam-and-wood methods were time-consuming and inconsistent, and biomechanist Ami Drory needed a fast digital workflow to capture athletes in position and the interior geometry of competition kayaks ahead of the 2012 Olympics.

The team used Creaform’s portable REVscan and VXelements to capture high-resolution scans, then processed the data in Geomagic Wrap into NURBS/IGES files for SolidWorks, enabling precise CAD modeling and Boolean operations to design individualized seat interfaces; 11 athletes were scanned and processed in three days. The workflow produced accurate, repeatable fitout designs, allowed production of custom seats for some athletes in time for London 2012 (Jessica Fox won silver), and demonstrated a scalable method for optimizing athlete–equipment performance.

Australian Institute of Sport

Ami Drory

Biomechanist