"Frame " for Volkswagen exhibition set
Prototype-Set manufactured by Hahlbrock serves as a basis for call for proposals in America.
By order of Volkswagen Group of America new sets for national and international U.S. automotive trade shows were designed by the German agency cebra. Each of the 16 sets consists of a presentation frame, rear wall, pole, bar, seating and special display areas.
All components should be so designed that they can be used repeatedly and for years, and that they could assembled according to the characteristics of the U.S. trade by installation personnel with no special knowledge of the material. They should also have a low carrying weight, meet high quality of workmanship and may be revised in the USA.
Hahlbrock was commissioned to produce the central design element of a set, the large-sized "frame" with the integrated 9 m overarching "Inlay" and several seatings for the prototype set.
The intention of the prototype construction was to provide in Germany a basis respectively an example that meet the above requirementsfor the call for proposals of the entire set for the North American area.
We designed the frame as a self-supporting, lightweight design. It consists of four individual components that are assembled by reversible force-fit fittings. The frame components consist of a sandwich structure with outer layers of fibre glass-reinforced plastic and a core of rigid polyurethane foam.The inwardl-looking open spaces in the frame are later inserted with leather-covered wooden boards. For the purpose of bracing the frame receives transverse ribs.
Zur Aufnahme des Inlays sind in den Seitenteilen in ca. einem Meter Höhe umlaufende Stahlprofile innenseitig anlaminiert. Auch das Inlay wurde aus einer leichten GFK-Sandwich-Konstruktion hergestellt.
In the side panels circular steel profiles are laminated on the inside in about one meter height to carry the inlays. Also the inlay is made of a lightweight fiberglass sandwich construction.
All visible surfaces are smooth, the quality is not impaired by reinforcements, ribs or inserts. The surfaces are painted with RAL 9016 satin finish in high quality.
As well the seating elements with removable top cover, upholstered with artificial leather, were made of fibreglass.
The first official set-up of the prototype took place in Wolfsburg in cooperation with the company Maedebach. Then the whole prototype set - packed in large-sized boxes -was shipped to America to be built up there by the American stand construction company EMI for the next presentation. Meanwhile the set manufactured by us set is used in the actual exhibitions.