Performance and Shape Optimization of the Campagnolo Tri-ProPad bike shorts pad

A new and revolutionary pad for bike shorts.

ABSTRACT

Sport equipment design is characterized by the fact that a fundamental part of a product success depends on the athlete’s feedback. In fact, unlike most of other sectors, product success is decreed by athletes, on the basis of their unique perception of the product itself.

In 2008 Campagnolo, the legendary cycling company that “played a major role in writing the history of cycling, turning sport feats into legends and great champions into modern-day authentic myths”, decided to create a new sport cycling wear line (for both professionals and amateurs), starting from the design of a new and revolutionary pad for bike shorts.

The new pad was conceived from the beginning to give the cyclist a feeling of lightness and comfort, coming from the choice of materials, the pad shape and its superior saddle isolation. To reach this goal, it was necessary to minimize the saddle padding volume, looking for the right shape and thickness, while minimizing the pressure peaks, which are localized near the support surface of the pelvic/femoral area, by redistributing them on the entire saddle contact surface.

In addition, the choice of materials for the different cushions that form the entire pad was very important, as well as the usage of anthropomorphic models in order to create a pad that was as independent as possible from the various cyclists pelvic sizes.

According with Campagnolo Sportswear guidelines, a range of design parameters was selected for both the geometry and the material data. Subsequently, the pad CAD model was virtually schematized (using Ansys WorkBench – Design Modeler Module), making the geometrical shape and material parameters completely parametric.

EnginSoft was able to meet and exceed the requirements of a company like Campagnolo Sportswear thanks to the technical knowledge of our engineers and the specific expertise in integrating a finite element numerical simulation software, like ANSYS, with a multi-objectives optimization software. 

The study results were the basis for the launch of a new pad-prototype by Campagnolo Sportswear, to be tested by professional cyclers. After enthusiastic athletes’ feedback, a new line of innovative cycling apparel was officially launched by Campagnolo: TriProPad^TM. 

The interaction between Campagnolo R&D technical office and EnginSoft during all phases was continuous and fundamental for the choice of the project variables and objectives. This approach allowed also to reduce the time to market and to minimize the cost that was correlated to the experimentation of more than one real prototypes. Ultimately, the analysis carried out in this study was the basis for the patenting and production of three different pads: TriProPad– Tech Men, TriProPad– Pro Men and TriProPad– Pro Women.

"EnginSoft allowed Campagnolo Sportswear to develop a brand new product that meets and exceeds all our requirements, both in terms of technology and innovation. The savings - compared to traditional product development - in terms of time to market and design costs were immense, and we are very thankful to EnginSoft for their outstanding work"

Paola Del Pesce
Campagnolo Sportswear