Stinger

About this project

The 'Stinger' is a open crampon design project. My contributions are comprehensive, from initial testing and building of prototypes to working directly with factories to execute on the design.

Sheet metal design

The primary lift on this project is designing 2 sheet metal parts. We have to push the limits of sheet metal forming to create a competitive product, making multiple variable radius blends, 3D coined structures, and global shaping. All of this makes mold creation difficult, so I have worked directly with the mold maker to be able to create the shapes we need, without cracking or stretching material where we shouldn't. My specific role is create all the 3D cad, predict the 'blank' shape that we need to start with, oversee mold design to ensure we don't crack material, and own the final results of strength and fatigue testing.

Injection Molding

The project also requires 2 plastic parts that must be removable by hand, but secure enough to stay connected in the field, and durable. The biggest challenge on these was designing aesthetic surfaces that can be reliably molded. There is one dual density part, and I designed both portions, internals included, such that it can be reliably molded and come out of the tool looking how we want. All of the drafting, wall thickness, gate location, ejector pin locations, gating, was all done by me in house to make sure we got the parts we wanted. They worked good.

Mettalurgy

We explored new propietart heat treats for this project, and eventually settled on one. Without giving away the secrets, I worked with an extremely capable heat treat supplier to figure out how to create a completely bainitic microstructure reliable and at scale. It's encredibly tough and gives a real advantage to the user.

Coatings

I also did a deep dive on many coatings for the various steel parts in this product. Everything from $50/part teflon infused nickel plating to black oxide. The final choice is something in between those two, balancing the needs of durability, corrosions resistance, aesthetic value, and cost. I'll update this page when it becomes public.