Modeling Services

In addition to engineering services, MDE offers custom made models for demonstrations or courtroom use. Models can be used as a part of an expert witness' testimony to demonstrate how an accident occurred or to illustrate particular details of a machine or vehicle.

In the case of reduced size models, a dimensional scale is selected that allows reasonable handling in the court room and yet adequately shows the jury details of the issue or element being explained. Sometimes the scale is selected to correspond to available human figure models. Because metal or plastic models of highway vehicles or construction equipment are often readily available, models of the supporting roadway or construction site are built to this pre-determined scale.

Demonstration models can be constructed in our shop by qualified technicians under the direction of a Professional Engineer. MDE has processing tools for handling metal, wood, plastic, foamcore, or cardboard stock.

Past models have included a full-size mock-up of a fuel tank for a pickup truck showing how the tank was constructed and how a shield could have been fitted to the tank. This model was used before a Congressional committee investigating pickup truck accidents and fires resulting from ruptured tanks.

Other custom models include a full-size transparent coffee maker, a vibratory sifting machine (1/8 scale), a fire truck (1/50 scale), and a topographical scene of a strip mining site (1/76 scale).