PBT Consulting

UNREASONABLE AT SEA, THE FIRST OCEAN-GOING STARTUP INCUBATOR WITH A CAMPUS-ON-A-SHIP BEGINS SAILING IN 2013

The ship MV Explorer will serve as a Semester at Sea and Unreasonable at Sea's tech incubator floating campus beginning in 2013 (Click Image To Enlarge)    

Last year, we wrote about Blueseed, an incubator-on-a-ship that is anchored near Silicon Valley.

We think we’ve found something cooler. Check out Unreasonable at Sea, an accelerator program geared towards tech entrepreneurs who want to take their products to different shores.

Unreasonable at Sea will make port at 14 different countries and circumnavigate the globe during its 100-day incubator program aboard the MV Explorer (Click Image To Enlarge)

They are doing it quite literally too: Ten teams from around the globe will participate in a 100-day program aboard a ship that will port at 14 different countries (subject to changes):

• EMBARK: San Diego, CA, USA
• Hilo, Hawaii
• Yokohama, Japan
• Kobe, Japan
• Shanghai, China
• Hong Kong
• Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
• Singapore
• Penang, Malaysia
• Cochin, India
• Port Louis, Mauritius
• Cape Town, South Africa
• Tema (Accra), Ghana
• Casablanca, Morocco
• DEBARK: Barcelona, Spain

Curious? Watch this 3-minute trailer:

 

If you think this is some kind of extended cruise trip, you’re wrong. Teams will be expected to perfect, tweak, and adjust their business model and product. Daily workshops will be held by mentors on the ship.

When porting at the different countries, events will be held to put these entrepreneurs in front of their land-based peers, as well as investors, politicians, and philanthropists. An opportunity will also be presented for them to test their products in various markets.

Which is a lot of hard work.

General Requirements To Quality 

To be eligible for this accelerator your company must meet the following requirements:  

• Your company must be for-profit. 
• Your company must be technology-based. 
• Your company should consist of at least two people. 
• You must also have a prototype, and prove that it is highly-scalable and has the potential to gain user traction. 
• Being revenue-generating is a plus. 

This accelerator, a collaboration between Semester at Sea and Unreasonable Institute, will start in January 2013. Applications close on 15th May 2012.

Some of the mentors that will join the program include: Ben Casnocha, co-author of The Start-Up of You, as well as George Kembel, who leads the Institute for Design at Stanford.

I guess spending 100 days out at sea is an experience very few have gone through, so expect some tough competition for a place.

Here’s the kicker: The cost of attending the program, estimated at US$120K per team, will be sponsored. On top of that, you’ll get a US$500 stipend for the whole trip.

But if you’re prone to sea-sickness, perhaps you should look elsewhere.

COMMENTARY:    If you read through the Unreasonable at Sea website you will find that this is a very serious incubator program, and it is going to be very selective.  You will be expected to meet ALL the criteria (see below) in order to quality for selection.   

Unreasonable at Sea is looking for entrepreneurs using technology to address massive social or environmental problems and using certain types of technologies.  This incubator program is not for social networks, mobile app developers, game makers, and so forth.   

The selected entrepreneurial teams will be quite unique and will undero brutal schedules that will include long hours in the class room and mentoring, meetings and presentations at each port of call, and very little sleep.   This is not your normal party boat.

This would be a perfect situation for a reality TV program.  Wish I had the time and financial resources to do it myself. 

Full Criteria To Qualify

You Must Answer YES to All The Following

• Is your company using technology to address a massive social or environmental problem?  We are looking for ventures focusing on telemedicine, mobile banking, clean-tech, democratized education, disaster relief…etc. In short, we are searching for companies leveraging technology to have significant impact.
• Is your company at a stage where it is strategic to work  internationally?  Unreasonable at Sea presents an incredible opportunity to leverage technologies that are already working in one market, and help move them globally. We are looking for companies who can convince us that their company will benefit wildly from the experience of an international accelerator at sea.
• Are you currently working full time on your venture?  A full-time commitment is defined as a minimum of 40 hours per week.
• Do you have at least one team member who is currently working full-time with you?   We believe in the power of teams and will only accept applications on behalf of teams that are at least 2 people in size. If you have 100 employees and individuals on your team, that is ok with us, but if you are going at this alone, we will not read your application.
• At minimum, do you have a prototype to market or have you run a pilot?  We do not select ventures at an idea stage. You must have a prototype or have completed a pilot program at minimum to be accepted. As noted above, we prefer to work with companies ready to scale internationally and who have already gained significant traction in at least one market.
• Is your venture a for-profit company?  We are capitalists at heart in that we believe in the power of markets to solve needs at scale. Consequently we do not work with NGO’s or non-profit organizations.
• Has your venture generated at least $1 in revenue from selling a core product or service?  We hold all companies who apply to this standard unless there is a compelling reason they have not yet sold their product or service (for example, many bio-tech companies need to run years of trials before they can sell a product).
• Do you have a relentless entrepreneurial spirit & are you hungry to take your venture to global scale?  You get where we are going with this.
• Are you 18 years of age or older?  You could be 80 years old, but due to a number of legal issues, we can’t accept applications under the age of 18.
• Are you a Founder or Co-Founder of your organization?  Although we will be accepting 2 to 3 individuals from each company selected, we insist that the founder or co-founder joins us on the voyage.
• Are you able to make key, high-level, direction-shifting decisions?  (such as investment and major partnerships) on behalf of your organization? Typically, this is the role of a CEO or CTO, but doesn’t necessarily have to be.
• Can you read, write, and speak in English fluently?  The entire program will be taught in English. English doesn’t need to be your first language, nor do you need to be prolific in English, but you will need to be able to read, write, and speak in English. 

If accepted, will you be able to attend the ENTIRE Unreasonable at Sea program from January 6, 2013 –April 25, 2013.

Semester at Sea

The mission of Semester at Sea is to educate individuals with the global understanding necessary to address the challenges of our interdependent world. Established in 1963, Semester at Sea is the only study abroad program of its kind in the world. Using a ship as a traveling campus, undergraduates, lifelong learners, faculty, and lecturers live and learn together while circumnavigating the globe each fall and spring semester and exploring a world region each May and summer term. To date, Semester at Sea has launched 100 voyages, educated more than 50,000 students from 1,500 universities, and traveled to more than 60 countries.

Unreasonable Institute

The Unreasonable Institute is a mentorship-driven acceleration program for entrepreneurs tackling social and environmental problems. Each year, the Institute unites 25 entrepreneurs from every corner of the globe to live under the same roof for six weeks in Boulder, Colorado. These entrepreneurs receive training from 50 world-class mentors, ranging from the Former Director of Google.org, to the CTO of HP, to an entrepreneur who’s enabled over 19 million farmers to move out of poverty. In the process, they form relationships with 20 investment funds, receive legal advice & design consulting, and pitch to hundreds of investors and partners. 

After seeing the success of the model of the Unreasonable Institute, it’s founder,Daniel Epstein, is eager to launch Unreasonable at Sea with a new approach. Instead of uniting entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurial Hub of Boulder (as Institute does), this accelerator will take place on a ship as it travels more than 25,000 nautical miles around the globe to 14 international destinations. 

Courtesy of an article dated April 18, 2012 appearing in SGEntrepreneurs

HOW AN MIT RESEARCH TEAM'S "SELF-ASSEMBLING SAND" BUILDS OBJECTS INSTANTLY AND COULD REVOLUTIONIZE 3D PRINTING

Terminator 2 'liquid metal' robot (Click Image To Enlarge)

IT SOUNDS LIKE SCI-FI, AND IT COULD EVENTUALLY MAKE RAPID-PROTOTYPING SEEM QUAINT.

If Terminator 2 taught us anything, it was that a properly timed thumbs-up can make us cry. Also, autonomous, self-shaping blobs are a must-have on our checklist for the future.

Now, MIT professor Daniela Rus and student Kyle Gilpin are publishing a paper on building such a wonder goop. They tend to refer to the technology as a smart "sand,” and they imagine scenario in which you could drop a small model into a vat of the sand, and the sand could sense that model’s contours and create a 3-D version of the object from that information. So you could drop in a tiny cup, the sand would sense the cup’s negative space and then it would shape into a cup that was 10x (or much more) larger. 

 

Right now, the team is focused on developing an algorithm to make their approach possible--a hyper-efficient language that’s simple enough for each grain of sand to understand without massive processing power. It’s only with this language that the idea could hope to scale.

Gilpin tells Co.Design.

“The beauty of encasing a prototype of the object to be formed with the smart material is that we drastically reduce the communication burden on the system so that we are prepared to scale-up the number of modules in the system.  If we used CAD or similar, we’d be forced to transmit a complete description of the shape to be formed to all of the modules. With 100 modules that’s okay, but somewhere on the way to a million, it becomes unreasonable. We don’t want to send a million messages, one for each module in the system, telling each whether it is a part of the shape we’re attempting to form or not.”

Four duplicate folding cubelet 'smart pebbles' prototypes held in the right hand were made from the original held in the left hand (Click Image To Enlarge)

To test their math, the teams has developed a prototype of the sand. (Gilpin calls these larger pieces “pebbles.”) Each pebble is 10mm across and contains an independent processor along with magnets that enable the magical sticking trick. As cool as they may be, the resolution of this rapid manufacturing technology is really only as sharp as the building blocks are small. Think of them as 3-D pixels.

Gilpin admits. 

“Shrinking the hardware presents the biggest long-term challenge.  As we shrink the modules, we’ll have to look for alternative connection mechanisms. One possibility is using electrostatic forces instead of magnetic ones. This would allow us to replace the relatively bulky electro-permanent magnets with much smaller electrodes.”

The researchers hold four duplicate prototype 'smart pebbles' (Click Image To Enlarge)

That said, the technology’s promise is massive. You could build structures that were far smarter than even our most advanced 3-D printed parts (even those that we’re using within the human body), that can respond and adapt to their environment.  Gilpin writes. 

“In addition to duplication, I would see our modules used for sensing tasks in constrained spaces. Perhaps you could pour our modules down a pipe in order to both map the shape of the pipe while finding defects or cracks. The modules could potentially help reinforce those weak points…Because it can self-disassemble, perhaps it could be used as an intelligent scaffolding for bone, or even organ, regrowth. The system could sense and relay important information to doctors and then disassemble as the bone healed.” 

Gilpin knows that the technology is a ways off, believing it to be closer to a 10-year vision than a five-year one. In other words, this self-assembling sand could be waiting for us right where 3-D printing leaves off.

COMMENTARY:   If MIT professor Daniela Rus and student Kyle Gilpin can perfect their "smart sand," it could be a game-changer in the field of rapid-prototyping and manufacturing small, complex objects at scale.   The key will be developing an algorithm and programming logic to make each smart sand pebble intelligent enough to copy the physicality of any object at the point of contact with the object.  It would obviously take many thousands of such smart sand pebbles to duplicate the shape of an object, and the additional mathematics to scale the resulting prototype up or down.  This will obviously be a very challenging piece of the puzzle, and could take many years before this new rapid-prototyping technology is sufficiently practical for commercial uses.  When it happens, you can bet that I will be writing about it on my blog.

Courtesy of an article dated April 3, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design

 

APPLE'S CONTROVERSIAL SUPPLIER FOXCONN AGREES TO CUT WORKING HOURS FOR ITS FACTORY WORKERS, WORKERS ASK WHY

Workers walk outside Hon Hai Group's Foxconn plant in Shenzhen, China.  Foxconn manufacturers the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod (Click Image To Enlarge)

When Chinese worker Wu Jun heard that her employer, the giant electronics assembly company Foxconn, had given employees landmark concessions her reaction was worry, not elation.

Wu, 23, is one of tens of thousands of migrants from the poor countryside who staff the production lines of Foxconn's plant in Longhua, in southern China, which spits out made-to-order products for Apple and other multinationals.

Foxconn International plant assembly workers working on the Apple iPad (Click Image To Enlarge)

Foxconn's concessions, including cutting overtime for its 1.2 million mainland Chinese workers while promising compensation that protects them against losing income, were backed by Apple, which has faced criticism and media scrutiny for worker safety lapses and for using relatively low-paid employees to make high-cost phones, computers and other gadgets.

But at the Foxconn factory gates, many workers seemed unconvinced that their pay wouldn't be cut along with their hours. For some Chinese factory workers - who make much of their income from long hours of overtime - the idea of less work for the same pay could take getting used to.

Apple CEO Tim Cook tours Foxconn's iPhone plant in Zhengzhou, China accompanied by the Foxconn plant manager - MIC Gadget (Click Image To Enlarge)

Wu, a 23-year-old employee from Hunan province in south China said.

"We are worried we will have less money to spend. Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean less money." 

Foxconn said it will reduce working hours to 49 per week, including overtime.

Chen Yamei, 25, a Foxconn worker from Hunan who said she had worked at the factory for four years said.

"We are here to work and not to play, so our income is very important." 

Chen said she now earned a bit over 4,000 yuan a month ($634) and added.

"We have just been told that we can only work a maximum of 36 hours a month of overtime. I tell you, a lot of us are unhappy with this. We think that 60 hours of overtime a month would be reasonable and that 36 hours would be too little."

Foxconn is one the biggest employers of China's 153 million rural migrants working outside their hometowns. Compared to smaller, mainland-owned factories, workers said, its vast plants are cleaner and safer, and offer more recreation sites.

But even so, for most employees at the Foxconn plant in Longhua, a part of Guangdong province's vast industrial sprawl, life is dominated by the repetitive routine of the production line.

Outside the Foxconn plant, off-duty employees crowded a small shopping mall. Their tightly packed apartment blocks are hemmed by hair salons, snack stores, gaming arcades and Internet "bars", where many while away leisure hours by playing computer games or watching Korean and Hong Kong soap operas.

Huang Hai, a 21-year-old man who said he had worked at Foxconn's factory for about two years said.

"I don't go out that much as there is nothing much to do. I do go out for a meal once in a while.  This is a good company to work for because the working conditions are better than a lot of other small factories."

Huang was waiting for a friend lined up outside the recruitment centre for prospective Foxconn employees.

Huang said.

"I didn't like my first job at Foxconn because it was very repetitive. It was mainly manual work and I had to hammer nails everyday.  Now it's better because I work with computers."

COMMENTARY:  It's very difficult to separate fact from fiction after reading the above quotes from Foxconn workers, because Foxconn has been known to fire employees who spoke negatively about the company, criticized working conditions in the press or demonstrated against the company in the past.  

This still does not explain the 13 Foxconn plant suicides that occurred since 2010 and two separate plant explositions due to dangerous chemicals that killed nearly a dozen plant workers and injured hundreds more, and reports by China's environmental protection agency that Foxconn and numerous other Chinese plants are not properly disposing of chemical wastes and have created an environmental pollution hazzard on a massive scale.  

One needs to understand that Chinese factory workers like those at Foxconn are from China's countryside where the people work long hours in the fields growing rice and vegetables, are very poor and not very well educated.  Many are willing to tolerate sweat shop working conditions and make about $3.00 a day to help their poor families back home.  To these workers, working at a company like Foxconn is a welcome change.

The fact is abundantly clear that Apple has been very slow in responding to the sweat shop working conditions of Foxconn and other Chinese manufacturers.  In two recent blog posts dated March 30, 2012, I reported on former Apple CEO Steve Jobs comments about Foxconn during an interview in 2010, and March 29 2012, I reported on Apple CEO Tim Cook's recent visit to Foxconn's plant in China.   Tim Cook wanted to meet with Foxconn officials and observe firsthand the changes that Foxconn has made to improve plant working conditions, worker pay and benefits, improve plant safety, dispose of hazardous wastes and comply with Apple's Code of Suppliers. This was mostly a publicity visit, to show that Apple cares about the plant workers of many of its outsourced suppliers in China and to appease the press.

Courtesy of an article dated March 30, 2012 appearing in Reuters

STEVE JOBS ON FOXCONN: "WE'RE ALL OVER THIS. FOXCONN IS NOT A SWEATSHOP. IT'S VERY TROUBLING. WE'RE TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT."

Of all of the Steve Jobs interviews, and believe me, there are not many videos of the King of Magical Devices being interviewed and put under the hot seat.  Steve Jobs would never subject himself to that, or admit any wrong doing.   However, Steve agreed to be interviewed by All Things Digital at the D8 Conference in 2010, about accusations of horrible sweatshop working conditions, unsafe working conditions, and 13 plant worker suicides at Foxconn International's plant in China, the company that manufacturer's Apple's iPhone, iPad and iPod.  

I would've loved to have had Steve Jobs "wired" at the time of the interview.  And just to prove that I have balls, I would've wired the other end to myself.  Everytime Steve lied, it would send a fiew volts of electricity that would give me a nice jolt.  It would've been like the 4th of July.  I would've litup like a candle, and I am sure Apple Evangelists would enjoy the spectacle.   I wonder what other wonderful tidbits of information we could've learned about Time's "Person of the Year for 2010?" 

Here's the video.  Please, no more hateful mail or nasty comments.  

 

Don't get me wrong.  I love Apple products, I think they are beautifully designed and engineered products that people absolutely lust for.   Steve Jobs is without any doubt the greatest entrepreneur and technology innovator of the modern era even though he did get some help from alien technology along the way.  

In a blog post dated March 29, 2012, I reported that Apple CEO Tim Cook had visited Foxconn International's plant in China, and he looked dapper in that yellow rubberized plant worker outfit, don't you think?  I love it when the CEO of a major company "grabs the bull by the horns," and personally takes the time to visit the site of all the carnage and widespread pollution.   If anybody knew what was going on over in China it was Tim, the architect of Apple's outsourced manufacturing model.    

Courtesy of All Things Digital and E.T. 

HOW HERMAN MILLER'S KAIZEN MANUFACTURING PROCESS ADAPTED FROM TOYOTA CAN FINISH A NEW AERON CHAIR IN 340 SECONDS

Completed Aeron Chair (Click Image To Enlarge)

USING TECHNIQUES IMPORTED FROM TOYOTA, HERMAN MILLER HAS ACHIEVED STUNNING EFFICIENCY WHILE EMPOWERING ITS WORKERS.

Amidst all the doom-and-gloom about the death of American manufacturing, the one, simple fact that’s usually forgotten is that we’re still the world’s No. 1 manufacturer. No joke, and not a typo: We produce one fifth of the world’s total manufacturing output.

Herman Miller factory worker assembles Aeron chair (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller puts all Aeron chairs through stringent quality control tests to insure quality and reliability (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller puts all Aeron chairs through stringent quality control tests.  Here test chairs backs are pulled by cables numerous times to insure quality and reliability (Click Image To Enlarge)

The difference between how Americans once made stuff and how that stuff is made today is that manufacturing in the U.S. has reached a stunning level of efficiency that can be hard to really comprehend. Unless, of course, you visit a factory like the one that makes Herman Miller’s Aeron chair. We recently did, and saw a process which has yielded a 500% increase in productivity and a 1,000% increase in quality since 1998.  Those numbers sound made up, but bear with me for a second, and I’ll explain.

 

The Kaizen ("continual improvement") process that yielded all those results was imported directly from Toyota, in the 1990s. At the time, Herman Miller was hoping to bring down costs in order to stay competitive across the world. And Toyota was hoping to build better relationships in the U.S., as part of its effort to build more cars in America. Herman Miller’s present EVP of operations, Ken Goodson, eventually cajoled Toyota into making Herman Miller one of the first companies in a pilot program to teach American companies Japanese manufacturing techniques. Toyota eventually sent Hajime Oba, a legendary manufacturing genius, to lead the lessons. (Oba himself, humble to the end, prefers that he be called sensei or coach.)

The sloped feeder that delivers chair bases to the worker use gravity rather than machinery to do the job--thus decreasing the breakdowns. (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller assembly worker places paper wrapping on completed Aeron chair for packing (Click Image To Enlarge)

Herman Miller assembly worker takes notes on production performance to insure everything is going according to plan (Click Image To Enlarge)

Kaizen, as many people will tell you, isn’t about grand ideas or huge structural changes. Rather, it’s about tiny improvements that accrue over time. So for Herman Miller, these involve adjustments as minute as the placement of a bin of washers so someone has to reach over 6 inches less, or the height of an assembly line, so people don’t waste a fraction of a second bending over.

The process is as important as the results: It’s the individual employees on the line that are suggesting these improvements. At Herman Miller, they average 1,200 "plan-do-check acts"--that is, little proposed changes to the assembly process--ever year. Eric VanDam, Herman Miller's director of operations in seating says.  

"The biggest thing is to empower people to change the work in ways that matter to them." 

All of these tiny improvements, in the course of 13 years, have meant that a new Aeron chair, which used to come off the line every 82 seconds, is now boxed and finished every 17 seconds. A decade ago, an Aeron took more than 600 seconds in total to build. Today, it’s about 340. Meanwhile, safety metrics have improved by a factor of 6. Quality metrics have improved by a factor of 10. A single Aeron takes one fifth of the labor to make that it once did. The actual factory itself is 10 times smaller.

Today, Herman Miller is doing far more with the same labor force that was once producing a sum total of five different office chairs. Today, they produce 17, using roughly the same number of people. And all the while, lead times have shrunk from two months to as little as 10 days.

You might think that all this means that Herman Miller should be running into a practical limit in how efficient they can be. But they’re still getting improvements of a quarter to a half of a second at a time, month by month. They’re on track this year to beat all their records--again.

COMMENTARY:      I wish I could put together a new office chair in 340 seconds.  If you have ever had to put together an office chair, or even a wodden desk, it can be a very time-consuming and frustrating experience, even with a set of written instructions to work from.   SmartFurniture, Herman Miller's San Francisco distributor, makes it look easy in this video.

 

I do love Herman Miller office furniture, especially those ergonomic and comfortable Aeron chairs. I view them as a form of art, not just office furniture.  Plus, they are 100% made in the U.S.A.  They are a bit pricey, but you get what you pay for.  Herman Miller products are sold only through authorized office furniture distributors.    

The basic price for the Aeron chair is $629.00, and can be customized with lumbar support adjustment, leather arm rests, fully-adjustable arm support and other goodies.  It costs $50.00 extra to buy one fully-assembled.   Beware of cheap foreign imitators.  There are several of them out there, but they are just not the same thing. 

Courtesy of an article dated March 28, 2012 appearing in Fast Company Design 

APPLE CEO TIM COOK VISITS FOXCONN'S CONTROVERSIAL iPHONE PLANT IN CHINA, MEETS WITH CHINA'S VICE-PREMIER LI KEQIANG

Apple Inc's Tim Cook, on his first trip to China as the chief executive officer, has visited an iPhone production plant run by the Foxconn Technology Group, which is being accused of improper labor practices.

China is the world's largest mobile market and already Apple's second-biggest market overall, but its growth there is clouded by issues ranging from a contested iPad trademark to treatment of local labor.

Picture handouts dated March 28 and e-mailed to Reuters show Cook seen smiling and meeting workers in the newly built Foxconn ZhengzhouTechnology Park in the north central province of Hebei. The facility employs 120,000 people, the handouts said.

Foxconn is a major part of Apple's global supply chain, assembling most of its iPhones and iPads, but has been hit by a string of worker suicides in recent years that activist groups blame on tough working conditions.

The group is the Taiwan parent of Hong Kong-listed Foxconn International Holdings and Taiwan-listed Hon Hai Precision.

Cook took the reins at Apple in August after the death of the firm's visionary founder, Steve Jobs. His closely guarded itinerary has included talks with Vice Premier Li Keqiang, Beijing's mayor and a visit to one of Apple's two stores in the capital.

On Wednesday, state media reported that China's vice premier promised Cook the country would boost intellectual property protection.

the official Xinhua news agency cited Vice Premier Li Keqiang as saying.

"To be more open to the outside is a condition for China to transform its economic development, expand domestic demands and conduct technological innovation." 

Apple has tie-ups with China Telecom and China Unicom to sell its iPhone, with the only other Chinese carrier, China Mobile, the country's biggest mobile operator, also looking to clinch a deal.

Apple is embroiled in a long-running dispute with Proview - a financially weak technology company that claims to have registered the iPad trademark - that is making its way through Chinese courts and threatens to disrupt iPad sales.

COMMENTARY:  I would gladly give up one case of Chateauneuf du Pape '04 to find out what Apple CEO Tim Cook told Foxconn management during his visit to the plant concerning their sweat shop conditions, progress on Apple inspections of their plant, and plan to improve worker relations and pay.

Cook's visit to Foxconn makes good public relations--images of the powerful new Apple CEO visiting Foxconn, gives one confidence that finally those sweat shop conditions will end, Foxconn will comply with Apple's Code of Suppliers and everything will be hunky-dorey.  As I said in my post prior to this one, Apple is not a socially conscience company.   They are all about increasing shareholder value and profitability.   

If Apple CEO Tim Cook really wanted to impress me, he would give Foxconn an ultimatum, and if they failed to comply after regular inspections, he would promise to move the manufacturing all Apple products to the U.S.  This would create an estimated 250,000 jobs, many of them right here in Silicon Valley, where we need them the most.   

I would be very interested in hearing from Apple evangelists--owners of Apple magical devices whether the iPhone, iPad or iPod.   Foxconn makes all of them, so you can enjoy that magical experience. 

Courtesy of an article dated March 29, 2012 appearing in Reuters and an article dated March 28, 2012 appearing in Brian Fontenot Blog 

CONCEPT SHED INTRODUCES THE 'AUTOWED WEDDING MACHINE', A PINK COLORED KIOSK THAT CAN GET YOU HITCHED FOR A $1.00

An invention that could save a lot of couples from the astronomical pain, not to mention the cost, of a fussy, traditional wedding.

The average American wedding costs $24,000. The larky contraption you see here lets you say “I do” for $1.

AutoWed is precisely what it appears to be: a vending machine that performs instant marriages, infusing the Big Day with all the romance of a fire hydrant. Insert money, and it’ll mumble through your basic wedding rites (press one for “I do” or press two to “escape”). Then the 8-foot-tall gadget, which designers UK-based Concept Shed describe as “part parking meter, part Cadillac and part cathedral with a little steam punk thrown in,” spits out a pair of plastic eggs with rings inside and a personalized wedding receipt. It finishes up by offering a 10% discount on AutoDivorce.

AutoWed Wedding Vending Machine by Concept Shed from Conceptshed on Vimeo. 

 

Cyn-i-cal! Even by the measure of our cold, black hearts. Obviously, this thing is a big, silly joke. (Concept Shed sold the machine in these photos to Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum in Detroit.) But if it were for real, it could actually save a lot of couples from the astronomical pain, not to mention the cost, of a fussy, traditional wedding. $23,999 could buy you one hell of a honeymoon.

COMMENTARY:   What a cool machine.  In pink too.  It doesn't perform real "legal" marriages, of course, but it's a whole lot of fun.  I can easily see the AutoWed machine in every single's bar and disco, hotel lobby's (just in case you hit it off in Sin City), airport waiting areas, shopping malls.  It's a fun way to express your love. 

The AutoWed wedding machine instructions are relatively straight forward.   I love it when the AutoWed says, "Please select your union. Press "1" for straight, press "2" for gay, press "3" for lesbian.  AutoWed is destined to piss off the anti-gay/lesbian marriage lobby.  

A buck doesn't go a long way any longer.  You can't buy a candy bar or wash or dry your clothes for that amount of cash.    

It's time to credit the young, professional product design and creative team of Concept Shed.  They are experienced in design, education, electronics and engineering.  They have designed some pretty unique and cool stuff.

They enjoy creating simple and effective solutions in the following areas:

• Creative Concept & Idea Generation
• Product Design & Development
• Museum, Educational & Novelty Interactives
• Bespoke Interactive Installations
• Experiential Marketing
• Product Prototyping
• Development of custom short run products
• Electronic Systems Development in
• Embedded Software Arduino / C++ / PIC / Assembler

The Designers:

• Sam Lanyon MEng Hons. MIET. Owner, Inventor & Creative Design Engineer.
• Laurence Symonds BEng. Creative engineer, Product designer & 3D CAD master. [ visit Laurence's blog ]
• Jowan Sebastian MA. Software, application & firmware developer. Arduino & Drupal guru.
• Esmé Maylam BA Hons. Qualified teacher & early years education specialist.
• Sarah Howe BSc. Project administrator, accounts & organiser.
• Paul. model maker & fabricator.

One slight improvement to the AutoWed:  I would've added a built-in camera to take pictures of the "married" couple, that would then dispense the wedding certificate with a picture of the couple.    Thanks guys!!  You made my day.

Courtesy of an article dated  July 3, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design

 

FOXCONN INTERNATIONAL, THE CHINESE COMPANY THAT PRODUCES THE IPHONE AND IPAD, WILL REPLACE WORKERS WITH 1 MILLION ROBOTS

ONG KONG/TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's Foxconn Technology Group, known for assembling Apple's iPhones and iPads in China, plans to use more robots, with one report saying the company will use one million of them in the next three years, to cope with rising labor costs.

Foxconn's move highlights an increasing trend toward automation among Chinese companies as labor issues such as high-profile strikes and workers' suicides plague firms in sectors from autos to technology.

Contract manufacturers such as Foxconn, which also counts Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Nokia among its clients, are moving parts of their manufacturing to inland Chinese cities or other emerging markets.

They are also boosting research and development investments to lift their thin margins.

Dan Bin, a fund manager at Shenzhen-based Eastern Bay Investment Management, which invests in technology and consumer-related shares in China and Hong Kong had this to say.

"Workers' wages are increasing so quickly that some companies can't take it longer.  Automation is a general trend in many sectors in China, such as electronics. Of course some companies will consider moving their manufacturing overseas, but it's easier said than done when the supply chain is here."

The China Business News on Monday quoted Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou as saying the company planned to use 1 million robots within three years, up from about 10,000 robots in use now and an expected 300,000 next year.

Foxconn, whose listed units include Hon Hai Precision and Foxconn International Holdings Ltd, issued a statement later saying Gou told staff at its campus in Longhua, China, that he planned to move its more than 1 million employees up the value chain beyond basic manufacturing work.

STRIKES, SUICIDES

Foxconn, which has been plagued by a spate of workers' suicides in its Chinese factories since last year, plans to use the robots for simple assembly line procedures, the statement quoted its chairman Gou as saying.

Since last year, China has been struck by a series of labor-related issues, such as high-profile strikes and suicide cases at well-known companies as heady economic growth fueled the need for wage increases.

In southern China, auto and parts factories owned by Japan's Honda Motor and Toyota Motor went on strike.

C.K. Lu, a Taipei-based senior analyst at research firm Gartner said.

"Rising salary costs should be the key reason why Foxconn is doing this. This year's wage increase has been quite significant and I don't expect the pace to slow down next year. If they don't do this, they will have to move their factories elsewhere."

At Foxconn, a worker fell to his death last month at a manufacturing plant in southern China, local media reported.

The worker's death was the latest in a series of apparent suicides by young migrant workers at its factory complexes in the past two years.

Foxconn employs about 1.2 million workers, one million of which are based in mainland China, the China Business News said.

Foxconn said.

"The use of automation is driven by Foxconn's desire to move workers from more routine tasks to more value-added positions in manufacturing such as R&D, innovation and other areas that are equally important to the success of our operations." 

Foxconn plans to buy a set-top plant in Mexico from Cisco Systems and is looking into investing more in Brazil, where it is already making mobile phone handsets.

It has bought LCD TV plants from Japan's Sony Corp in Mexico in 2009 and Slovakia in 2010 and is in cooperation talks with a number of top Japanese hi-tech firms, including Sharp, Canon and Hitachi.

On Monday, Hon Hai Precision's Taiwan shares rise 3.3 percent, while Foxconn's cellphone maker unit Foxconn International's Hong Kong shares ended up 4.3 percent.

Shares of another of the group's unit, Foxconn Technology Holdings Ltd, which mainly makes casings, jumped 6.8 percent.

COMMENTARY:  In a blog post dated October 11, 2011, I was very critical of Apple because of they outsource the manufacturing of their "magical" devices, namely the iPad, iPhone and iPod, to the slave labor camp known as Foxconn International.  Foxconn International is nothing less than Gulag, a slave labor camp, where workers experience intolerable work conditions and long hours for very little pay.  12 workers committed suicide between 2009 and 2010.  

 

MacStories reader Jay Yerex forwarded to Steve an email campaign from LabourStart, which said:

“As many of you will be aware, the Apple iPad (pictured) had its world-wide launch this weekend.

What you may not know is that the factory which produces it, in China, has been the scene of a dozen worker suicides in recent months.

We’ve been asked by unions and NGOs in Hong Kong and Taiwan to launch a big international campaign to put pressure on the factory owners — and on Apple — to probe why this is happening, and to allow workers there to have real, independent unions that can bargain collectively.

Please take a moment to send off your message now.

And please — spread the word!

Thanks very much.”

Together with the forwarded email, he wrote:

“Steve

Apple can do better!

Sent from my iPhone”

Steve Jobs replied later, with this message:

“Although every suicide is tragic, Foxconn’s suicide rate is well below the China average. We are all over this.”

It is unfortunate that Steve Jobs never did anything to end Apple's association with Foxconn International or seriously address the suicides, and basically shrugs it off as their (Foxconn's problem).    

Courtesy of an article dated August 1, 2011 appearing in Reuters and an article dated June 1, 2011 appearing in MacStories  

 

HOW MUCELL® MICROCELLULAR FOAMING TECHNOLOGY FOR INJECTION MOLDING MAKES THINGS STRONGER AND LIGHTER

The MIT-developed technology, called MuCell, makes plastics super strong but extra light.

Here's one thing that often gets lost in the shuffle when debating the sexier points of green transportation: the simplest way to make a car, plane, whathaveyou more eco-friendly is just to make the whole damn thing lighter. All well and good, but how do you make sure that those industrial-grade plastic parts maintain their strength once you lighten them up? A technology developed at MIT called MuCell, and now being explored by automakers like Ford and Cadillac, has an answer. And that answer is: just add bubbles.

No, seriously: adding tiny bubbles of nitrogen or carbon gas into the normal injection-molding manufacturing process results in plastic that's just as rough-and-tumble, but up to 10% lighter (according to estimates from Ford Motors, who's very keen on using the technology). But wait: how does removing material from the part with these bubbles not make it weaker? The truth is that designers always massively "over-spec" the mechanical tolerances for these parts -- usually 50-100%. So the relatively small reduction in material strength introduced by the bubbles is negligible, because the part was designed from the get-go to be much stronger than it'll ever need to be in practice.

Still, that 10% weight reduction could help Ford meet its goals of eventually shaving off anywhere from 250 to 750 pounds from an average car. Ford is hoping to incorporate the MuCell-made plastic into all its vehicles by 2020. Luxury brands like Cadillac are circling, too. So why are they suddenly interested in MuCell's microcellular foaming technology, which was actually invented nearly two decades ago at MIT before being commercialized by Trexel? Two simple words that matter now much more than they did in 1995: "Sustainability initiatives," says Levi Kishbaugh, VP of Engineering at Trexel. "Automakers like Ford have sampled the MuCell process over the past decade and have achieved good results, and now they are taking the next steps toward widespread adoption." Kishbaugh says that when MuCell is incorporated into part design and mechanical tolerances from the get-go (rather than applied downstream in the process), even greater weight reductions can be achieved while maintaining part strength: "20% or even more in many cases."

Bonus: Not only does MuCell result in weight-optimized designs, it also uses less manufacturing material too. (Bubbles are mostly empty space, remember.) This isn't to say that car manufacturers should give up on next-gen battery technology and other gee-whiz green engineering initiatives. But the small stuff -- like zillions of microscopic nitrogen bubbles in a Ford manufacturing facility -- matters, too.

COMMENTARY:   The MuCell Molding Technology is licensed by Trexel, Inc., Woburn, MA, the world leader in the development and commercialization of the MuCell Molding Technology. MuCell Molding Technology is available as a retrofit to installed injection molding equipment and as an option on selected new injection molding machines (only on licensed OEM's). All MuCell-capable machines--new and retrofitted--are also capable of conventional, non-foaming operation.

According to Trexel engineer Levi Kishbaugh, the Trexel MuCell™ microcellular plastics injection molding technology conversion kits average between $150,000 to $300,000 per plastic injection molding machine.  All installation and training is done onsite by Trexel engineers.   

Trexel's MuCell microcellular plastics injection molding technology is patented, offers barriers to entry, offers lower plastics material melting viscosity (energy savings and faster injections), generates savings in both materials and producing cycles, does not require any changes to existing raw materials, and the payback period is quite impressive.

Trexel markets the MuCell foam injection molding technology products to OEMs and end-users through a network of sales representatives located in the U.S., Germany, Australia, Japan, China, Korea and Singapore. 

Trexel began as Axiomatics Corp in 1982 and changed its name to Trexel, Inc. in 1996.  Trexel is located in Woburn, Massachusetts, investor and employee privately owned, claims to have over 300 MuCell plastic injection models installations, and the President and CEO is Steve Braig.   Revenues are not available.

Courtesy of an article dated April 1, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design

====================================================================  

The following information was "lifted" off of Trexel's website.   Looks like the techies at MIT are on to something, and Trexel is going to make a lot of money, while helping manufacturer's make things faster, lighter and more economically.

The MuCell™ Molding Technology

The MuCell™ Molding Technology uses low-cost, environmentally friendly supercritical fluids (SCFs) of atmospheric gases (CO₂ and N₂) as physical blowing agents to produce a low viscosity polymer melt. This low viscosity melt is subsequently used advantageously by the molder to reduce cycle times, improve dimensional stability, produce microcellular foam and to reduce weight of most injection molded parts. Initially developed as a method of producing relatively thin extruded sheet and tubes, the MuCell Molding Technology now encompasses a broad range of patented molding techniques that can reduce product costs, improve processability and increase the performance of molding machines.

Processing Improvements

Many processing enhancements are possible with the new MuCell Molding Technology, resulting in attractive cost savings for molders. For example:

• The use of SCFs as blowing agents with the MuCell process lowers the viscosity of the material by up to 50%, which allows for substantial decrease in melt temperatures (as much as 78^o on the centigrade scale, 140^o on the Fahrenheit scale)¹ while maintaining flowability.^{2 
  1}In tests, polypropylene (PP) dropped from approximately 430^o to 300^o F (approximately 220^o to 150^o C), polystyrene (PS) dropped from approximately 430^o to 260^o F (approximately 220^o to 125^o C), and polysulfone dropped from approximately 700^o to 560^o F (approximately 370^o to 295^o C). 
  ²With 0.020 in (0.5 mm) PS plaque, the standard mold filling flow-to-thickness ratio improves from 50:1 to 270:1.
• Because of the low melt viscosity in the MuCell process, the injection pressure can be reduced up to 50%, as shown in Figure 1:

• The low melt viscosity in the MuCell microcellular process permits molders to reduce clamp tonnage up to 60%. Consequently, molders can increase the number of cavities without increasing clamp tonnage, which can significantly improve production efficiency. Likewise, larger parts can be molded without increasing clamp tonnage, which also can improve production efficiency.
• Because of the uniform and controlled internal gas pressure inherent in MuCell Molding Technology, the MuCell process can eliminate sink marks while either reducing or eliminating hold time.
• The combination of low viscosity, uniform internal gas pressure, and low molded-in stress results in much lower post-mold warpage. Because of these attributes, the MuCell process typically results in a significant reduction in cooling time and thus cycle time.
• Because of the low injection and clamp pressure requirements of the MuCell process, it is possible to switch from steel molds to aluminum or other lower-cost materials and more-cost-effective methods of manufacturing.

Product Improvements

The advantages of microcellular foam material result from the uniformly sized and evenly distributed microscopic cells. With the MuCell Molding Technology, molders can foam complex, three-dimensional objects with solid skins and microcellular foamed cores (skin/core cross sections) with excellent dimensional tolerances. The MuCell process permits molders to produce parts with substantially lower densities than with conventional foam molding technologies.

The controlled weight reductions characteristic of the MuCell process can be quite impressive, as illustrated later in this paper in the applications section.

The MuCell™ Process Expands Molding Capabilities

Generally molders use foamed materials and weight-reducing processes (such as gas-assist) for two primary purposes: to reduce product costs and to improve product quality. Cost reductions and product quality improvements are achieved in a number of ways, including reducing raw material, improving processing (e.g., reducing fill pressure and reducing cycle time), and enhancing product characteristics (e.g., eliminating sink marks). The application and effectiveness of conventional foaming, gas-assist, and other technologies, however, are often constrained by cost limitations, control complications, product-design challenges, and other factors. Trexel's successful adaptation of the MuCell™ technology for injection molding gives molders expanded capabilities. With the MuCell process, product designers can specify lightweight, polymer-saving molded foam materials for products for which conventionally foamed materials would be impossible and for which other lightweighting techniques (such as gas-assist) might be ineffective or not cost effective.

MuCell Molding Technology and Conventional Foaming

Only a very small percent of injection molded products are foamed today, perhaps less than 5%. In addition, injection molded products that are foamed are generally limited to 0-5% weight reductions. In comparison, the MuCell microcellular molding technology can achieve density reductions of up to 60%.

The use and expansion of conventional thermoplastic foams is limited primarily by the large size of the cells that characterize materials produced by standard foaming techniques and the lack of uniformity of those cells. Large cells necessitate relatively thick part cross sections to ensure that the cells are contained within the material, which prevents thin-wall foaming. (Thin cross sections are often flawed by breaks and holes.) In addition, large, non-uniform cells introduce brittleness, which decreases mechanical properties (e.g., strength, toughness, and fatigue). In contrast, the microcellular foam material produced with the MuCell Molding Technology does not contain large voids. For instance, while thin wall foaming below 0.100 in (2.54 mm) is seldom successful with conventional foaming processes, the microscopic, uniformly sized cells produced by the MuCell microcellular foam process enable molders to foam materials with cross sections as thin as 0.020 in (0.5 mm). With the MuCell Molding Technology, molders can produce high-volume, thin-wall parts without significant loss of mechanical properties.

Traditional foam processes also can produce material inconsistencies due to the inherent difficulty of controlling the levels, uniformity, and release of blowing agents (such as in the use of CBAs). The precisely controlled-MuCell process, however, improves consistency and reduces variability.

The MuCell microcellular foam process is less sensitive to material composition than conventional foaming processes, which enables molders to use more cost-effective resin grades. Since the blowing agent is not "ignited" to liberate the gas in the MuCell Molding Technology, all materials can be foamed with the same atmospheric-gas blowing agents, without limitations caused by high processing temperatures. For example, high-temperature materials such as polysulfone and polyehterimide-which are difficult to foam with conventional techniques-are suitable for the MuCell process. (With the MuCell Molding Technology, weight reductions of up to 25% on parts with wall thicknesses of 0.100 in/2.54 mm have been achieved with these high-temperature materials.)

The MuCell Molding Technology and Gas-Assist

Although gas assist is an effective technique for both reducing product weight and improving product functionality, the technology is limited by bubble placement, bubble size, and part complexity, which generally restricts the use of gas assist to the production of thick parts (unless special part designs are used). With the MuCell Molding Technology, the entire part is foamed with microscopic cells, without requiring the injection of holes or voids, as in gas-assist. Because the MuCell molding process is a precisely controlled density-reduction process, weight reduction is achieved without the need to address either gas bubble placement or size. In addition, control of closed-loop gas voids is eliminated since the cross-section structure is homogeneous.

The MuCell process is not limited by part complexity. Because the MuCell microcellular foamed structure is homogeneous, it is not necessary to design methods of injecting gases. (Few if any modifications are required to existing molds to apply the MuCell Molding Technology.) With the MuCell Molding Technology, the weight reduction is uniform and consistent and occurs throughout the part.

As noted above, the MuCell process is suitable for thin walling. While gas-assist generally is not effective for parts thinner than 0.150 in (3.8 mm), the MuCell technology can be applied to complex, three-dimensional parts, with sections as thin as 0.020 in (0.5 mm), and once again no major mold modifications are required.

Advantages attributed to gas-assist processes--such as a reduction in fill, pack, and hold pressure and a resultant reduction in clamp tonnage--are also realized by the MuCell process, but for different reasons. In gas-assist, the injected gas provides some of the fill, pack, and hold pressure (thereby reducing the overall pressure); in MuCell processing, the overall pressure is reduced because of the low melt viscosity and internal gas pressure.

Applications of the MuCell™ Molding Technology

The MuCell Molding Technology is suitable for a broad range of thermoplastic polymers. Because the MuCell process uses an inert gas it is less sensitive to material composition than conventional foaming processes and more-cost-effective resin grades often can be applied.

Trexel has applied the MuCell™ microcellular foam process to numerous applications on commercial injection molding equipment in Trexel's production-scale test laboratory. To date, the high-temperature engineering resin polyphenylsuflone (trade name Radel), nylon, polycarbonate (PC), polycarbonate/acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (PC/ABS), polyethylene (PE), Acetal, polypropylene (PP), and thermoplastic elastomers (TPEs), such as Santoprene and Kraton, have been foamed.

Currently, extruders and molders around the world are developing and introducing new and innovative microcellular foam products for a variety of industries, including the automotive, medical device, consumer goods, and electronics industries. Applications for injection molding microcellular foam material include a wide range of automotive, food service, and electrical markets.

Analysis of cost reductions due to MuCell

Figure 5 demonstrates from actual applications how MuCell has reduced costs. Obviously, cycle time and material reduction has been the greatest benefit for the applications run to date, but other significant cost reductions include colorant reduction, energy consumption reduction and tooling costs.

On each commercial trial run with MuCell, the customer has performed a Return on Investment analysis. Figure 6 is a summary on some of the parts run along with their savings / year and payback of the initial investment in terms of time. As you can see, the savings per year is based only on cycle time or material savings. Ancillary savings such as reduced energy consumption or reduced capital cost is not considered.

Implementing the MuCell™ Molding Technology

The MuCell™ microcellular foam process follows four basic steps:

1. Gas dissolution: A supercritical fluid (SCF) of an atmospheric gas is injected into the polymer through the barrel to form a single-phase solution. Equipment designed for the MuCell process allows for the rapid dissolution rate required.
2. Nucleation: A large number of nucleation sites are formed (orders of magnitude more than with conventional foaming processes) where cells will grow. A large and rapid pressure drop is necessary to create the large number of uniform sites.
3. Cell growth: Cells are expanded by diffusion of gas into bubbles. Processing conditions provide the pressure and temperature necessary to control cell growth.
4. Shaping: Mold design controls part shape. No modifications are required for most molds.

Equipment

The MuCell™ molding technology can be retrofitted easily to installed equipment with low-cost hardware and software modifications. Adapting the MuCell process to injection molding requires the following changes or additions:

• A SCF metering system with sufficient capacity to deliver the blowing agent to the screw at the volume and pressure required for the MuCell process. (Trexel's Equipment Division supplies properly configured pump systems for SCF delivery and other proprietary components to licensees.)
• A Trexel-designed screw for creating a single-phase solution of the blowing agent and polymer and possibly a new barrel.
• Minor software and system modifications to create and maintain the uniformity of the single-phase solution throughout the injection molding cycle.

Trexel has entered into commercial license agreements with Engel, Inc., Milacron, Arburg, Ferromatik, to supply new injection molding equipment capable of utilizing Trexel's proprietary MuCell™ microcellular foam process. Retrofit packages for installed equipment are also available on selected equipment. Additionally, EPCO has also taken licenses and is capable of retrofitting installed equipment. As noted above, all MuCell-capable machines--new and retrofitted--are also capable of conventional, non-foaming processing.

 

 

Conclusion

The MuCell™ molding technology permits molders to produce new and innovative products while reducing product costs. The MuCell process can be used to mold complex, thin-walled microcellular foam parts with dramatic weight reductions. Product improvements include the elimination of sink marks, lower post-mold warpage, and skin-core cross sections. Process improvements include reduced processing temperature, reduced injection pressure, reduced clamp tonnage, and reduced cycle time.

The MuCell Molding Technology uses supercritical fluids (SCFs) of atmospheric gases as physical blowing agents--not CBAs, hydrocarbon-based physical blowing agents, nucleating agents, or reactive components. The MuCell process, which can be retrofitted to existing equipment, is available in selected new injection molding machines; all MuCell-capable machines also can be used for conventional, non-foaming processing.

The materials and process savings associated with the MuCell Molding Technology will become even more pronounced during the next 3-5 years as products and tooling are specifically designed for this breakthrough technology.

Patents and patents pending in Asia, Europe, and North America cover Trexel's MuCell Molding Technology. 

By TwitterButtons.com  

 

MIT AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERS INVENT THE TERRAFUGIA TRANSITION FLYING CAR, PRODUCTION STARTS SOMETIME IN LATE 2011

The Jetsons-inspired future that we all dream of inched a little closer to reality today with news that the Terrafugia Transition, a flying car developed by MIT-trained aeronautical engineers and MBA's, will begin limited production in late 2011. The vehicle will be produced in Woburn, Massachusetts--just down the road from company headquarters--with help from 50 lucky workers who will be able to say that they build the futuristic vehicles we were all promised as kids.

The Boston Herald reports that Terrafugia needs to deliver 30 aircraft each year to stay in the black. That's not an easy feat for an entirely new breed of vehicle that costs up to $350,000 a pop. But Terrafugia already has 85 orders for the FAA-approved flying car, so the company can at least make a go of it.

It's street-legal, remember, but that doesn't mean any public road can be cleared for takeoffs and landings. Still, we're a little wary of the Transition's potential to wreak havoc on the roads. Drivers (or pilots) need to have a Sports Pilot license to operate the Transition, but that's an easy requirement to fulfill--20 hours of flight time and a practical test are all that is needed to become certified. With a cruising speed of 115 mph and a 400 mile-range, there is plenty of room for pilots to enter dangerous airspace, either accidentally or on purpose. So here's hoping that Terrafugia works out the logistical kinks of this thing before the first big flying car accident.

 

COMMENTARY:  This car reminds one of that flying car in the James Bond movie "The Man With The Golden Gun".  

Designed by a team of MIT graduates, the Ferragugia flying car converts from a street-legal automobile to a Light Sport aircraft in 30 seconds. A 100 hp, four-cylinder engine powers both the craft's three-bladed propeller for a maximum airspeed of 115 mph and its continuously variable transmission, rear-wheel drive to above 65 mph when on the road. When the wings are folded, the craft easily stores in a home's garage. It can be driven to one's preferred airfield on four DOT-approved tires with full road suspension. An electro-mechanical system is activated from inside the two-person cockpit to deploy the self-locking wings into place for take-off provided by a 1,700' runway. Built to fly within VFR conditions, sophisticated modern avionics aid navigation from a touch-screen LCD. Dual pedals and a joystick manage the craft's flight control surfaces--dual rudders, ailerons, and stabilator--while a steering wheel, accelerator, and brake control its road movement. Its 23-gallon gas tank provides a 425 nautical mile range (35 mpg on the road), indispensable for easy day trips from Long Island to Martha's Vineyard. Carbon fiber, titanium, and aluminum construction. Includes comprehensive familiarization with craft. Requires a Sport Pilot Certificate. Special conditions and guarantee limitations apply. Car mode 6' 8" H x 7' 6" W x 19' 6" L; Aircraft mode 6' 6" H x 26' 6" W x 19' 9" L. (Empty weight 970 lbs.)

If you want to order online click HERE  or call 1-800-227-3528 for details.

Courtesy of an article dated September 9, 2010 appearing in Fast Company Design and Hammacher Schlemmer

By TwitterButtons.com