Motovated > News > Newsletter October 2008

Hello everyone,

Well we have had a busy few months, with lots of things happening, including a presentation of our work for DesignLine at the Solid Works Innovation Day, success at the Champion Canterbury Awards, and more exciting projects on the go. Read on for details of the past months events, our regular brain teaser (with answers to last issue’s) and another design tip.

Motovated will also be hosting an end-of-year Karting Challenge, and we invite our friends and clients to challenge us on the track at SupaKarts Indoor Raceway - see below for details.

Lastly, the down-turning economy presents its own challenges. With dropping markets even maintaining market share means selling less product, so increasing market share or increasing profit is the only way to stay steady. The up-side is that slower times are a good opportunity to improve efficiency, profitability and processes. Now is the time to make those small changes that can make all the difference to your production costs and part quality. Remember a little bit of automation can go a long way, and if you can get your products out faster with less expense and with less rejects, the bottom line always sees a boost! Please let us know if we can help.

Greg Morehouse
General Manager
Engineering Analyst

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Events: Solid Works Innovation Day 2008

Solid Works Innovation Day 2008 saw the official product launch of Solid Works 2009, with lots of What’s New features and advanced capability. There was a range of workshops, tips and tricks and customer presentations - all round a great event.

Motovated had the opportunity to present some of the techniques it has developed to manage large, complex assemblies and geometry. Ian Macpherson, the technical lead for DesignLine’s bus projects, shared some effective and elegant ways to develop robust, manageable models which are easy and intuitive to modify.

We also saw some very clever and innovative machines, such as the Martin Jet Pack and the announcement of the JetBlack NZ and Australian land speed record attempt.

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Winners at the Champion Canterbury Awards

We are pleased to announce that Motovated Design & Analysis won the Champion Service Small Enterprise category in the 2008 Champion Canterbury Awards.

We were somewhat taken by surprise by the result, as the other finalists are very competitive and successful businesses, so we are very proud to receive the award.

So, for the best engineering services, talk to Motovated!

See our press release for more details.

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Tips & Tricks: Making the most of inflection points

In a rigid beam under bending, the bending moment passes through zero twice along the length of the beam. These two points are called points of inflection. This means that there is virtually no bending stress at these points, and only the shear load needs to be carried.

One very handy application of this is found in pressure vessel design:

By placing welds at the inflection points there is no flexing of the weld as the pressure fluctuates, which is ideal in a fatigue loading situation.

[Images sourced from "O.W.Blodgett, Design of Weldments"]

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Upcoming Events: Motovated Karting Challenge

Motovated will be hosting an end-of-year Karting Challenge, and we invite you to join us (and challenge us) on the track at SupaKarts Indoor Raceway. The details are:

• Enduro Team Race, $45 p/p for 60 laps, relay style race, changing drivers every 10 laps.
• 3 people per team, 180 laps in total

Date: 27 November 08 Time: 5.45pm - 10pm Email today to register your team, final numbers required by 10 Nov 08

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Outsmart your colleagues!

Check your answer to the August Newsletter’s question here:
This was about the prisoners with the red and green hats. The prisoner with the green hat second from the right can deduce the colour of his hat and set everyone free. If the prisoner on the far right could see two hats of the same colour, he could easily work out his hat colour.

If he doesn’t say anything, the prisoner second from the right must know his hat is a different colour to the prisoner in front of him - i.e. his hat must be green.

Congratulations to Martin Lowen of Long Plastics, a Mitre 10 voucher is on its way to you.

This issue’s question is: There are six eggs in the basket. Six people each take one of the eggs. How can it be that one egg is left in the basket?

Send your correct answer to competition@motovated.co.nz to be in with a chance of winning a $50 Mitre 10 voucher.

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Thanks for your time, and we hope you enjoyed this newsletter. We look forward to continuing to provide you with the best engineering services and advice possible.

Greg and the team at Motovated.