challenge: 

Inventor Eric Hall of Hall Spars invented and patented the AutoLock: an automatic halyard lock not requiring a trip-line. Halyard locks hold hoisted sails up on the mast to remove tension from the halyard, halving the amount of compression on a sailboat mast. When the team at outradius took over the product line management, the first generation AutoLock designs were costly to manufacture, heavy, and the product line was disorganized. 

results: 

The outradius team used knowledge of CNC machining and finite element analysis to improve the four designs of the first generation AutoLocks for manufacturing and weight savings. This focus on design for manufacturing resulted in an average of 33 percent cost and weight savings across the product line. A line of lighter high performance titanium AutoLocks was also added to the Hall Spars product offering. The first generation AutoLock designs had four different sizes. A fifth 10 MT Safe Working Load AutoLock was added for superyachts. 

The first generation AutoLocks offered poor support without proper customer manuals, and never moved past their original disorganized R&D part numbering system. Graphic designers at outradius worked with drawings from the mechanical design staff to make customer manuals and technical sales materials across the product line of AutoLocks. Additionally, an intuitive product numbering and organizational system was generated to help the Hall Spars staff. 

challenge: 

Inventor Braden Leonard, a former firefighter, lost his right hand and almost lost his life to flesh eating bacteria. After trying and breaking a couple of different mechanical prosthetic devices available on the market, Leonard decided to make his own and started a prosthetic device company: Hand Made Prosthetics. He had three major issues with mechanical wrist and pin-lock design: free rotation under load, strength, and transmission of pronation and supination (twist) from his arm to the prosthetic device. 

results: 

Leonard partnered with outradius to design two parts to the Hand Made prosthetic device system: the TwistWrist wrist unit, and TwistLock distal locking mechanism (pat. pending). The TwistWrist uses a proprietary adapter and bearing system to provide free rotation under all load cases, even off-axis load (while still providing a rotation lock). The TwistLock distal locking mechanism was designed by outradius use a non-circular pin to transmit the arm’s pronation and supination to the prosthetic device. The prosthetic device end was designed by outradius, while Leonard and Hand Made team developed a vacuum forming technique for transmitting torsional load customized for each amputee. The TwistWrist and TwistLock were designed using finite element analysis to ensure appropriate safe working loads for human tensile and torque loads per the NASA Human Performance Capabilities. 

Braden's story has been seen and heard by thousands on 60 Minutes, Discovery Channel Canada, National Public Radio, and Mashable among others. 

challenge: 

The idea of FiberSprung began when inventor Spencer Gavin Hering’s mother lost her wood-sprung dance floor to a fire sprinkler system malfunction. Reinforcing the idea, hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria destroyed a plethora of dance floors in Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico in the summer and fall of 2017. Widely considered to be the top dance floors in the world, wood-sprung floors are expensive permanent installations, have a high risk for damage, and lose their spring characteristics after 10-15 years of use. These factors highlight the need to innovate wooden sprung floors. 

results: 

Hering, a professional ballet dancer and dance floor builder, partnered with outradius to design a modular sprung dance floor system using a fiberglass subfloor (pat. pending). Composites such as fiberglass can be used as high tech waterproof replacements for wood. The dimensional and performance stability of fiberglass provides better quality control than wood at a fraction of the weight. Using structural engineering, the outradius team matched the performance characteristics of the latticed wooden members in a wooden sprung floor with a fiberglass lattice.  A proprietary elastomer fitting method was developed which allows the fiberglass lattice to be modular and the floor to be stored on pallets; an impossible feature for a wood-sprung floor. The innovation of the modular sprung floor has made the FiberSprung floor the first floor on the dance market which is able to be financed. (through FiberSprung partner, Full Circle Finance) 

challenge: 

Goetz Composites was the boatbuilder for the 70 foot carbon fiber biplane catamaran, Saphira. Goetz contracted outradius to specify the deck hardware for the build, and to design any custom mechanical parts and assemblies required by the build. In addition, outradius was also contracted to design composite spars for the electrical sensor equipment, and a movable davit system for the dinghy.   

results: 

Using the load inputs from the sail and spar manufacturers and 3d models of the deck plan of the boat, the outradius team calculated the loads required for each piece of sailing hardware for the yacht based on the maximum possible loads on the running rigging. Using these loads and a baseline factor of safety, the team specified  all production pieces of hardware to be installed on the boat. In some areas such as lines exiting the mast and entering the daggerboard trunks, the team at outradius designed custom aluminum and stainless steel sheave boxes and ferrules, optimizing their designs using finite element analysis. From prior catamaran sailing experience and input from the owner, the hardware design globally defined the ergonomics of how the yacht is to be sailed. 

Additionally, outradius worked with the Goetz electrical contractors to design carbon fiber spars on the aft portion of the boat used for holding electronics. These spars were integrated into a life-boat style davit system. The lifeboat davit and chock system was designed to be built out of of composites using structural engineering to ensure the strength of the components within the system. 

For more information: https://www.chriswhitedesigns.com/atlantic-70f