Child's nightlight wins design award

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Dec 6, 2001

The project presented by Lunar Design, San Francisco, California, has been selected as the Grand Winner in Accelerated Technologies' WaterClear 2001 Prototype Design Award competition

The project presented by Lunar Design, San Francisco, California, has been selected as the Grand Winner in Accelerated Technologies' WaterClear 2001 Prototype Design Award competition.

Joel Jacobs of Lunar Design was awarded the Grand Prize at EuroMold by two of the contest panel judges, Jim Reitz and Terry Wohlers, at the DSM Somos stand November 29th.

Lunar Design's winning entry, entitled Lunar Firefly Project, features a product named Glimo, a nightlight designed as a friendly, magical, luminescent bug intended to appeal to children.

The playful approach to this nightlight is meant to evoke feelings of fun and comfort.

Using its suction-cup feet, Glimo can be attached to a window so that solar power energizes the nightlight.

One of the judging criteria for the designer submitted projects was the uniqueness and interest of the application of DSM Somos 10120 WaterClear resin.

For Glimo the use of this material was important to the process of allowing the design to be presented and analyzed much more tangibly than with alternative materials.

Glimo presents functionality that is explicitly based upon transmission and interaction with light, and it is essential to produce prototypes that are optically clear yet also durable enough for hands-on evaluation.

Previous prototype solutions for similar design projects were produced in ABS, which is a time-consuming and expensive alternative.

Somos 10120 WaterClear stereolithography resin is a unique optically-clear ProtoFunctional prototyping resin combining many desirable engineering properties, mimicking the flexural strength and modulus of polycarbonate, the notched izod impact strength of Nylon 66, and the tensile strength of ABS.

Its transparent appearance may be dyed, in a secondary step, for color tint.

Joel Jacobs, Director of Product Design of the winning company, received a Palm m505 handheld product, a free WaterClear model of his project, and $5000 in rapid prototyping services from Accelerated Technologies In addition to its wining entry, Lunar Design also submitted five other designs which combined innovation with design in products ranging from household to information systems accessories.

Mike Durham, General Manager, Accelerated Technologies, commented on the selection of Lunar Design as the grand prize winner by stating, "The selection of Lunar Design as the Grand Prize winner reflects the quality and range of projects that would benefit from the choice of a Somos WaterClear resin.

It was applications such as the ones presented by Lunar Design that led to ATI's decision to first beta test the Somos WaterClear material and than to later host the WaterClear Design contest.

Both the number and quality of the contest submissions were impressive, and the final decision on the grand prize winner from the ten finalists was difficult to make." For all the submitted designs to the design competition, Somos 10120 WaterClear resin accommodated requirements ranging from the need to better visualize the inner workings of a product (including fluid flow) without being hampered by the amber hue and lack of true transparency of standard SL resins - to ensuring that tight tolerance mechanical fit and function specifications could be evaluated early in the design process - to actually simulating the physical properties of material intended for use in production.

The panel of judges for the contest included: Terry Wohlers, President, Wohlers Associates; Jeffrey Rowe, Contributing Editor, "MCADCafe.com"; Jean Hoffman, Associate Editor, "Machine Design"; Pat Toensmeier, Editor-in-Chief, "Modern Plastics"; Jim Reitz, Business Manager, DSM Somos; Mike Durham, General Manager, Accelerated Technologies The award program generated worldwide entries from as far west as Hawaii and as far east as Israel.

Contest entries were evaluated on four factors including a demonstration of the power and benefits of optically-clear rapid prototypes, the uniqueness of concept or application, visual impact, and originality.