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| Showcase
of 2004 SL Excellence Award Winners |
Grand Prize:
Burton Snowboards
Title: “Functional
and ‘Rideable’ Snowboard Binding Baseplate and Hi-Back”
Selective laser sintering has benefited Burton Snowboards R&D
efforts in several ways, but most notable are the time and cost
savings achieved. This binding was a prototype created and ridden
on-snow within 48 hours of the initial concept being discussed.
Prior to acquiring their SLS® system, Burton typically outsourced
RP parts and aluminum injection molds to test new binding designs.
Those methods can often be costly and involve healthy lead-times.
In addition, once aluminum tools are cut, modifications for design
changes can cost even more time and money.
The SLS™ process allows Burton to build several new
designs and iterations overnight, and hand them off to their
on-snow testers in the morning. Their SLS system also allows
them to start testing new concepts and designs while they are
still very much in the research phase, without completely committing
themselves to the time and costs of “prototype tooling” and
the risk of losing a large investment on an unsuccessful concept.
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First Runner Up: Loughborough University/Rapid Manufacturing Research
Group
Title: “Fully Customized Laser Sintered Clothing/Fabrics”
The laser sintered apparel shown is the first three-dimensional,
fully conformal and customized rapid manufactured (RM) garment
to have ever been manufactured in its assembled state.
Though shown as a “fashion” garment,
the true potential of RM textiles lies in the ability to give added
functionality to endurance/specialized
fabrics, such as the future capability to embed electronics
within the build process for the production of truly wearable computers,
for example.
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Tie for Second Runner Up: Reebok
Title: “ASD
Ankle Brace Project”
Reebok
began developing a unique ankle support system targeted for
the National Football League (NFL). This system was a molded
plastic support designed to fit the athlete and provide the
best support available while allowing for full articulation
of the ankle joint. This required a very exact fit best measured
during the use of the brace in a performance situation.
Typically,
Reebok would open sample tooling for each trial until the
system fit properly. This requires a full injection
mold for each trial, incurring both substantial costs and lead-times.
To get this product into the market as quickly as possible
and still ensure its proper fit and performance, Reebok looked
to its selective laser sintering (SLS™) technology to
produce useable prototypes. The SLS technology allowed for
four iterations in under one month and allowed for true production
tooling to be made in plenty of time for product introduction.
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Tie
for Second Runner Up: Natural
Resources Research Institute
Title: “The House in the Box”
This joint SL/LS Excellence Award entry is a model representing a
new containerized, easy-to-erect housing concept that is under development
at the University of Minnesota Duluth by the Natural Resources Research
Institute.
The basic concept is to develop easily shippable housing units that
can be erected on-site with a minimum of tooling or special expertise,
during disaster relief efforts for example. The model shown is a third
generation model that illustrates special housing features for certain
aspects of the concept, such as the drop-in-place kitchen, the modular
shower facility and the sink and toilet module.
The use of selective laser sintering and stereolithography allowed
for the creation of certain features that would have been difficult
using only one technology. This project would have been extremely costly
to prototype with other modeling technologies and would have taken substantially
longer to produce the various iterations.
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