Design Costing

Design Refinement & Ergonomics

The ergonomics report findings have now been integrated into the leash design, as per the newest version of the Alpha Leash pictured here. I even found some friends with really big hands to try it out, and I thought I had big hands, thanks Charlie!

Now the next steps in the Alpha Leash’s development are to get the parts that make up the leash quoted out. How much will tooling cost?, how much will each part cost?, what design changes can be made to eliminate tooling complexity but won’t effect function?, what elements can be changed to aid in easy assembly?, the list goes on and on…

So we are reaching out with our initial design drawings and CAD data to steel stamping shops and mold shops to start this next phase in development.

Testing

Now that our durability cycles have passed with flying colours we are now getting into the static testing of the latest ergonomic design. That is the testing of the leash at maximum loading. Like squeezing the brake as hard as you can and it not breaking. PS: some people can squeeze up to 100 lbs or more, who knew!

And it’s a cruel process; 12 hrs of 3D printing an amazing looking leash, and next thing you know, after pulling on the leash with 80 lbs of force, it’s broken and a new design with added reinforcements needs to be completed and the process starts again.

And just in case you’re curious the target leash pull force is 100 lbs.

Spring

YES, spring is coming, can you believe it! Up in Toronto we are finally seeing nicer weather, for us that’s 7 degrees (for our US followers that’s 50 degrees ;-) ), and that means we get to start our 2021 Demo days soon, which I am super excited about.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and stay tuned for more progress!

—Ed