Montie Design Participating in 2013 NCDBA Expo & Symposium April 9

MORRISVILLE & PINEHURST, N.C.–Innovation and commercialization firm Montie Design (www.montie.com) will be participating in the 2013 NCDBA (North Carolina Defense Business Association) Expo & Symposium April 9 at the Pinehurst Resort as an exhibitor, showcasing competencies of interest to defense industry contractors. By actively participating in this well-respected annual event, Montie Design is able to lend insight and experience to conversations among attendees on best practices essential to achieving excellence in product design. “We’re pretty active in the NCDBA community as event participants and committee members as it helps us showcase our core competencies in mechanical engineering, industrial design, engineering analysis, prototyping, and product commercialization” Montie Roland, company president, said. Continue reading “Montie Design Participating in 2013 NCDBA Expo & Symposium April 9”

Fun Stuff – EMP Resistant Box

I think its fitting that the parts for the EMP Resistant box came back on the same day as the first night of the new season of Revolution!  No irony is lost there.  For those of you who don’t follow Revolution, its a TV show about an EMP like device that takes down life in America as we know it.

You can see below where we have assembled the shell for the lower portion of the box.

IMG_2767

Then we check to make sure the box is square in the fixture.

emp box_inside

As Hannibal (A-Team) said “I love it when a plan comes together”.  The fact that just about everything fit together first try without any major “Adjustments”  resulted in a lot of smiles.

EMP Box_Mike Smiling

The next step is to make a small adjustment to a some minor parts on the bottom of the main chassis, deburr the plates, reassemble and carry to the welder.

Have a great day and enjoy Revolution tonight, as you’re wonder if you need an EMP resistant box too.  I’m pretty where you can get a really nice one to keep all of your electronics safe.

Have a great evening!

Montie

Intern Update – Rachael Hughes

Hello Montie Design community!  I am Rachael Hughes, a design/drafting intern here at Montie Design since January 2013.  I am currently a senior at North Carolina State University in Technology, Engineering, and Design Education with a concentration in Graphic Communications.

My most recent project at Montie Design grew from a challenge from Montie to design a product for family car camping.

 

The Concept:

I decided to design a product or products that would keep your utensils from setting on the surfaces typical to camping, such as the picnic table or the top of your cooler.  (The current design is at the bottom of this blog.)

 

The Design Process:

The first design was a simple, flat product that could be hung up and held cooking utensils, eating utensils, and dish towels.  To hold a dishtowel, a slot could be used, but then the moisture from one towel could be transferred to the other, so I instead used a keyhole design, so that the corner of the towel could be inserted into the larger end and pinched tightly into the smaller end of the keyhole.

Version 1:

0DryingRackSingleSlots 0DryingRackSingleDims 0DryingRackSingle

Version 1 Prototype:

 

0DryingRackProto

The prototype for this version proved to be very crowded when all functions were used, so I went back to the drawing board (in my case, SolidWorks) and began to redesign.  To alleviate the issue of crowdedness, I decided to break the product down into three pieces.

 

Version 2:

Cooking Utensils Rest:

1CU

 

Eating Utensils Rest:

1EU

Dish Towel Hanger:

1DT

The Cooking and Eating Utensils Rest idea developed into a design that could be used by hanging from a carabiner or at the picnic table like the prototypes show.

Version 2 Prototypes:

Cooking Utensils Rest:

A

 

B

Eating Utensils Rest:

C B

A

Dish Towel Holder:

A

B

During testing these prototypes, I was able to make sure that this design could also hang from a carabiner and still efficiently hold the silverware as well.

It was during this phase that I also developed an idea for a Paper Towel Holder.

Version 2 Add-On:

Paper Towel Holder:

1PTwCord

Using the same shape as the Dish Towel Holder, a wire could be permanently connected at one corner, ran through the paper towel roll, guided through a small notch for  stability, and a loop on the end could attach right to the carabiner.

 

Version 2 Add-On Prototype:

A

B

 

The four items comprised The Clean Kitchen Set, Version 2:

1ProtoSet

1Cara4Set

 

The Current Design:

After consideration, the this specific Paper Towel Holder has been excluded from the set because ideation sessions with Montie yielded a completely different configuration to be pursued at a later date.  The Cooking Utensils Rest, the Eating Utensils Rest, and the Dish Towel Holder, however, have continued to develop.  The design of the Cooking Utensils Rest and the Eating Utensils Rest are as follows:

2CU

2CUDrawing

2EU

2EUDrawing

 

The final design of the Dish Towel Holder has not yet been decided on, but here are the  three contenders:

Option A:

DT-A

DT-A Drawing

DT-A Proto2

DT-A Proto

 

Option B:

DT-B

DT-B Drawing

 

Option C:

DT-C

DT-C Drawing

DT-C Proto2

DT-C Proto

(If you have any suggestions, or preferences, please feel free to leave a comment for me!)

 

Current Status:

The Cooking Utensils Rest, Eating Utensils Rest, and all three possible versions of the Dish Towel Holder are currently being cut at a water jet cutting facility nearby.  We are testing these designs in both aluminum and ABS plastic.  I will update soon with pictures of the prototypes when we receive them.

 

 

 

Podcast: Rapid Prototyping Options

Morning,

Please join the discussion about Rapid Prototyping options that are available for us to use in building your prototypes.

Rapid Prototyping Options

Cheers,
Montie

Intern Project – Campfire Bench

coco and her assignment

I am coco, an industrial design graduate student at NCSU. I am an intern at Montie Design this winter. I am now working on the outdoor wood bench design. This bench design focuses on the customer need which has a hanger for people to put their back packs and their coat when they feel hot and a hook for people to hang on the garbage when they talk with their family member and take some snacks.

sketching

The following picture shows how the concept developed.  Fist I have three different ideas about the bench and then narrow down to one idea. Secondly I started to have different styling about the concept and at last I decided the assemble method.

Sketching / Ideation Process

final design

This is the outdoor bench. In order to matches the whole environment, the design comes from the tree branch and also matches the function of it.

The higher one on the right is the hanger of the coats or backpacks. The small one on the left is hook for people to hang on the garbage bag or other paper or plastic bags. The first purpose of this bench is setting around the camping fire. So at the bottom of the bench, there is a shelf for people to store the fire wood.

Montie Gear Campfire Bench

Montie Gear Campfire Bench

Montie’s Product Design Podcast: Designing for the Prepper Marketspace

[audio: https://montie.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2012-Designing-for-the-Prepper-Marketspace.mp3|titles=2012 – Designing for the Prepper Marketspace]

In this podcast I share how to dig in and  understand a marketplace.  Understanding is key to designing products that fit with the needs and desires of a specific market.

This prepping series of podcasts came about through a lot of research.  Understanding your customer on this level helps you better design and engineer products for that customer and avoid mistakes that occurred because of a lack of understanding of the customer and market.  This prepper market is very interesting.  I hope this podcast is engaging on a personal level and gives you great examples of how to put a market into a context that helps you design better products for that market.

If you like how we think at Montie Design; please give me a call or email so we can help your company with your next product or prototype!

Have a great weekend,
Montie
montie@montie.com
800.722.7987
www.montie.com

Weekly Podcast: I Just Need A Protoype

I Need A Prototype

Inventors often come to us and say “I just need a prototype.”  Lets take a look at how we can get that prototype to you.

Weekly Podcast: Personalities and Personas

Personalities And Personas

Personalities and Personas is an great tool that helps you sort through all of the options, features and benefits that you are faced with in the early stages of a project.  Join me in discussing how to deploy and use this simple, but effective tool.

Podcast: Understanding Your Customer

Understanding Your Customer

Understanding your customer is an important part of a successful part of a new product.  Lets take a few minutes and chat about how to do just that.  This podcast looks at one specific market (Preppers / emergency preparedness / life skills / self reliance) in detail.   Learn how to step out of your comfort zone and look a market that you may have been exposed to before.

Cheers,
Montie

Podcast: Style Boards Make for Happier Clients

Using Style Boards for Happier Clients and Better Results

In this podcast, Montie shares his views on why style boards should be used in the design process, as well as gives a few tips to as to how to help implement them into your design process.

 

Internship Update

The Making of the Survival Hatchet

I’m Daniel Lecky, a 2012 graduate from NCSU College of Design, and I am an intern here at Montie Design. This project was an idea I had to add to the line of Montie Gear products. Introducing, the Survival Hatchet! It is a 10.6″ long Hatchet with a long para-chord wrapped handle with a knife, magnesium and flint for fire starting and a whet stone for sharpening the blade, all concealed in the hatchet’s sheath. Below are a series of sketches and images from conceptual to ideation to modeling stages.

Here I thought of concealing a spear head along with fishing wire and matches within the handle but it would be too awkward to get to everything quickly and comfortably.

 

The blade is too large and there is a concern about stability with there being such a sharp angle right under the blade.

 

Solving the stability issue, this new version of the hatchet has a unique angle to the handle and a solid look.

 

These are a series of Sheath sketches to determine how the knife and assorted survival stones can be packaged together.

 

Here is a print out of the 3D model with sheath sketches. The sheath is drawn on top of the drawing with specific components labeled and sent off to a leather shop to construct the case. However, the hatchet was too heavy and bulky. Redesign!

 

The Survival Hatchet! It is much slimmer, weighing 1.45lbs as opposed to the previous 2.4lbs, yet still very solid and structurally sound. There are spaces provided for a Carabiner clip or rope to loop through to carry the hatchet. There are also small holes for the paracord to tie through.

September 2012 Newsletter

Montie Design Completes LED, Environmental Testing, and Tolerance Analysis Projects

Our talented innovation and commercialization team has recently completed several projects showcasing our firm’s diverse portTfolio of product design and technical consulting.  Summer 2012 efforts include a complex tolerance analysis study performed for a leading supplier of interconnect products, several different LED lights, and large environmental test chambers.  The tolerance analysis study — for a component in a rack mount chassis — was produced on a parallel course as the design of a reference enclosure for our client.  As the design team members created concept sketches and models, then 3D CAD models and drawings using SolidWorks design software, they were crafting the detailed tolerance analysis in white paper format to answer the essential questions of “how do I use the component in a real world design?” and “what are the consequences of using that component in a design?”

LED lights are extremely efficient, but most people don’t realize the amount of concentrated heat they generate.  Keeping the electronic circuits healthy requires careful thermal controls.  Because of the thermal requirements and the production cost sensitivity, LED lights have to be well designed in order to be competitive with existing non-LED lights and function over a very long life.  These LED lights are made in low-to-medium quantities but have to compete with products that are made in very, very high quantities.  Challenges like this require a focused design effort with an experienced team that works closely with the client to leverage their internal experience.

As for the large environmental test chambers, they are custom products designed and built one at a time.  The prevailing wisdom for these chambers has been to design them in 2D with older CAD systems such as AutoCad, but we took a different approach were we leveraged the power of 3D CAD to create complete models of the chambers down to the individual part, nut and bolt.  This makes it much easier for our clients to review the design, source the parts and build the enclosures.  The models also can provide detailed information for end-users in case repairs are ever needed, said Roland, a value-add his clients were not able to provide their customers in the past.

 

Montie Design Participates in Morrisville Economic Development Forum

On September 17, I attended a Morrisville Economic Development Forum to learn about best practices in economic development.  The first speaker was Bob Leak Sr. with Leak-Goforth Company, LLC., a seasoned consultant who helps companies find suitable locations for businesses in locations spanning the North American continent and outlying islands.  Michael Silver, planner for the City of Raleigh, walked us through the process the City of Raleigh has used to create a zoning system that is very different that the traditional density-based zoning systems of the past.  This “central planning” approach is somewhat controversial and may not be a fit for the town of Morrisville, but there are several tools they use that could help Morrisville plan for the future.  Bill Bott from the Change & Innovation Agency conducted a mini-class about how governments should look at their output as a product.  He went further to explain the need to identify the actual end user and how that isn’t always who you think it is.  It was very interesting to hear about product development in the context of government.  The same tools and approach applies, just in a different context.  This was a valuable morning for me in multiple ways.  As a firm, we have very little interaction with planning or zoning issues.  However, as I’ve personally become more involved with economic development in Morrisville, it is becoming very apparent that economic development is much more complex than just growing companies with new products.
We are proud to continue to contribute to local and regional organizations to contribute to economic growth any way we can.

 

Montie Gear Expands Product Line, Launches Revamped Website

When we originally built the Montie Gear site we were looking to generate a modest amount of interest and website traffic.  To our surprise, we soon found this interest to be well beyond our initial expectations.  This is a good problem and now we have a great solution with an enhanced web presence and easier to use shopping cart to better handle orders more quickly.  If you get a chance, please check out the new website at www.montiegear.com.

We’ve also been busy with new products (between jobs for clients).  These products include the break-down arrow for the slingshot, the camp shelf (2012 Montie Gear Contest winner from NCSU), Hunter’s Friend for tree stands and the garbage bag holder (solving a simple problem in a simple and cool way by a Cary High student).  These products should all be available for sale sometime in Q4.  Other products in the pipeline include the Montie Gear ultralight knife and the advanced bow sight.  We are having way too much fun with these products.

 

Montie Design Joins the Partnership for Defense Innovation

We have officially joined the Partnership for Defense Innovation (PDI) as part of an overall effort to further its commitment to serving the changing needs of the defense industry.  A tax exempt 501 c(3) organization promoting economic development in the defense space, PDI is based in Fayetteville.
As many of you may know, Montie Design has been working alongside PDI through the years, interacting with member companies and organizational leadership at industry events.  We decided that formalizing our relationship would help both parties contribute to defense innovation through outreach efforts such as this past summer’s Advanced Technologies Forum hosted by U.S. Senator Richard Burr.  I was honored to serve on an information technology panel discussing modeling and simulation at the event, which served to establish a dialogue between industry, academia and government and form partnerships to address the future needs of the federal government to meet future challenges such as sequestration.

 

Call or Email Today to Discuss Your Project

Want to talk product development or need help with a project?  Don’t hesitate to contact Montie Roland at 919-481-1845×103 or montie@montie.com.-798