Sure, we talk a big game about high-falutin’ techno-logical mumbo jumbo around these parts, but now it’s time to flex those flabby brain-bags and see what you know about old-school manufacturing tech. Ready? Go.
‘manufacturing process’
Rocket Powered VW Beetle, Street-legal with a Dab o’ SolidWorks
You might have a dad that builds you cool camera accessories, but what if you have one that attached rockets to anything that moves? Even better.
Ron Patrick is Mechanical Engineer that has no problem with jamming jets into tiny vehicles, so that’s what he did. One modified turboshaft engine, one VW Bug, one sweet Rocket Powered VW Beetle. This was covered years ago by many a blog, but we’re gonna revive it just to get in some process love with the bits designed in SolidWorks and imagine what this guy is working on next.
The Dawn of ‘HD’ Drawing Formats. The Age of Paperless Is Nigh!
I’m gonna bet a box of matches and some dry cedar that many of you work for companies who enjoy shoveling a fine mush of paper stacks and file cabinet dividers toward smiling documentation specialists. Who blames them… PAPER IS GLORIOUS!
Especially, those first sweet sounds of the day sipping vodka coffee to the whirring of copy machine and paper shredders. Glorious, I tell you… but NOT if you’re a company that has vowed to do away with paper through the entire engineering and manufacturing process.
How could one even fathomed that, you ask?
Phil Sluder’s Zyclone Launches Awesome Toy Design In Your Face
If you’re like me, you’ve been a bit uneasy and perhaps bitter that you didn’t get the foam projectile device you wanted so badly for Christmas. Wipe those tears, because it’s a new year and there’s something even cooler you’ll want to get your hands on.
Phil Sluder of Triaxial Design has all the boys and girls in a ring hurling rage (as you’ll see in the video) with a toy he designed along with a particle physicist, a machinist and a chicken farmer. It’s the Zyclone, and if you don’t buy one after reading this, the rest of this year will be BORING.
Here’s the scoop, the process Phil went through to design it in SolidWorks and bring the toy to market with a little advice for those wanting to do the same.
Ask the Reader: How In the Blazes is the ‘YellowClip’ Manufactured? Plus New Photos.
How many times do you see a product design and think, “How could this possibly be manufactured at a reasonable cost?”
The ‘YellowClip’ Clothesline Clip designed by Paul Sandip is just one of those designs that brings up such questions. It’s curvy, it doesn’t rust, it’s available in a variety of colors and it looks like a tooling nightmare. Is it? How in the blazes do you think this simple design could be manufactured?
Ask the Reader: Does Your Manufacturing Rock The 3D Data? Should It? {Poll}
OOoooo. Is this really a question that needs to be asked? Everyone uses 3D right? and if they don’t, the should be slapped upwards and forced to partake of the goodness that is 3D geometry.
Do the manufacturers you work with use 3D data to create parts, build assemblies or get information not provided on drawings? Or do they just stick with good ol’ paper to keep production rolling? I’m thinking there’s usually a mix, but there’s benefits with 3D data a lot of shops may be missing. Whatcha think?
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The Giant Foot of Google Wave Will Crush CAD and PLM
Ok, maybe not ‘Crush’ so much, maybe more like, boot it into the future. You need to drop your bagel, Blackberry or coworker on the ground and run, nay I say sprint, to read Oleg Shilovitsky’s 6 reasons Why Google Wave will Change PLM Collaboration.
Pivotal, my geometry-glazed friends. Oleg briefly points out how Google’s Wave application has direct applications for how we will collaborate in the future. It’s 6 things, I’m convinced, hardly anyone has realized or is even thinking about. How do you think this is going to affect how you work?
Here are the 6 reasons. Read them, read his post and let me know what you think!
