Newsletter July 2008

In this issue:

• Motorcyclists are Truly Blessed

• RedEye Product Scores Big

• Preserving Our Water Supply

Motorcyclists are Truly Blessed

Motorcyclists are known for their love of symbols and icons, but up until now, there have not been many new product designs on the market that involve a more traditional cross, according to Jessie Nichols of Brainchild Enterprises. Consequently, he was interested when Truly Blessed Customs, a custom motorcycle parts provider, asked Brainchild to design and build a prototype custom air cleaner in the shape of a cross. The product features the original "Truly Blessed" logo design portraying the Truly Blessed concept of bringing a unique, strong and aggressive but spiritual look to its creations. The Truly Blessed air cleaner was designed for v-twin motorcycles and varying carburetor configurations. Brainchild utilized the affiliation between Alibre, Inc. and RedEye for this project. Alibre, a RedEye partner, offers Alibre Design, a 3D parametric solid modeling application that was used by Brainchild to create the prototype design.

"We knew with RedEye that we had an opportunity to reduce the front-end cost to our customer and help get the product to market in a shorter time frame," said Nichols. "It was a justifiable cost decision on our part, and we were able to obtain rapid prototypes in days versus weeks compared to traditional machining operations." The two prototype parts were $720 compared to estimates Nichols received from 16 other manufacturers that averaged $3,100. Before engaging Brainchild and RedEye, Truly Blessed had a rough prototype consisting of approximately 30 aluminum parts. Much of the detail in the lettering was lost. Truly Blessed wanted a product that was light weight, low cost, easy to manufacture and used a stock air filter.

"The final design is a two-piece configuration that exceeded expectations," said Nichols. "The RedEye prototypes enabled proof of concept. When the parts arrived, we immediately installed them with the filter on various motorcycles. By observing the prototyped assembly in its final configuration, we were comfortable moving forward with production."

"The RedEye instant quoting plug-in for Alibre Design was also very important," Nichols said." It saved time and added security because we didn't have to upload our data to another source." Nichols said his first project paid for the cost of his investment in Alibre. "This is a typical customer experience," said Greg DeMars of Alibre. "With the combination of increased productivity and low entry cost, many clients recover the cost of Alibre Design on their first project."

Eventually, Truly Blessed Customs hopes to continue to create multiple styles and designs of air cleaners for retail. It also will offer customers the opportunity to have the air cleaner inscribed with a personal message, such as "in memory of." For now, it's enough to be "Truly Blessed."

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RedEye Product Scores Big

As a follow up to a past case study students from Flower Mound High School in Texas recently placed fifth out of 25 teams in the Marine Advance Technology Education ROV Competition with an underwater vehicle crafted in part by RedEye. The four-member team submitted a design to RedEye, which built the vehicle with ABS green.

"Flower Mound had a limited budget and limited time, and the underwater vehicle had a complex geometric frame," said Matt Stenoien, RedEye Account Manager. "RedEye met Flower Mound's budget requirements and time constraints, and our additive fabrication technique is immune to complex geometry."

"The machine ran great, and we received many comments about the frame," said student Collin Cragin. "We think we had one of the three best looking machines at the competition." The result? The team plans to use RedEye for its design again next year.

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Preserving Our Water Supply

Carefully managing this planet's rapidly disappearing resources is important. Australian-based AWMA Pty. Ltd., which provides innovative water-saving infrastructure and technology to help irrigators achieve greater water control, recently contacted RedEye Australasia to build a prototype for housing the data and control hardware for its new FloTrol product. FloTrol is a purpose-designed metered outlet for the replacement of Dethridge wheels, which measure the flow of water delivered to farms for irrigation.

Rapid prototyping assists AWMA in marketing and demonstrating products to customers by allowing them to show tangible examples of their designs. Often it is not feasible to take an actual product to a customer. The demonstration of a working model assists people to visualize and understand how a product operates to achieve their end requirements. It also demonstrates to customers the level of effort in the design and development of quality products by AWMA. FloTrol required research, development and testing of specialized components, including a housing built from ABS for product testing and development. "The efficiency and quality of the product provided allowed AWMA to progress toward the final development of this revolutionary product," said Simon Bartlett, RedEye Australasia.

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