New Product Pics

Check out the pics of the Hunter’s Friend!

The Hunter’s Friend mounts onto a tree just above the hunter’s should while in the tree stand. The device keeps the bow in a position where it can be instantly and silently brought to the shooting position without any excess noise or motion that could frighten game away.

Good bye from the Swedes

Hey!

So after more than three months, me and Robin’s internship is finally coming to an end. It has been an awesome experience for us to work at Montie Design and we have learned an incredible amount of new stuff. Some of the Montie Gear stuff we’ve been working you might have already seen if you’ve been hanging around this blog. Lately we’ve also been given the opportunity to work on some client projects which have been very fun and challenging. These products you’ll probably be able to find in Montie Design’s portfolio in the near future.

All in all, we are very greateful to have been able to come over here for this internship. We’ll will bring back with us a lot of new knowledge and a lot of fun memories.

Thanks!

/Richard and Robin

Some of the mock-ups and finished prototypes for the Montie Gear products we've been working on this summer.

Wrist Brace ready for pre-order!

Hey y’all!

It’s been a while since any of us interns posted anything here, but we’re still around. At least for a couple of weeks. The reason we didn’t have anything to write on the blog is that we’ve mostly been working on client projects, work which we can’t publish in any way we want to.

However, the Wrist brace, which you might have read about before, is now ready. I fixed a few things in the drawings, and finished the braiding pattern. Armrest Only 450 Black armrest 450

It’s available for preorder in the Montie Gear webshop, so if you’re looking for a more stable shooting position, now is the time to order! The Wrist brace replaces the regular side brackets on the Montie Gear Y-Shot, and is attached in the same way, with the same screws. The first batch will come in black powder coat finish. Enjoy!

Double armrest 450

/ Robin

My Internship at Montie Design

Hey Everyone,

I recently finished my internship at Montie Design and it was great! I got to work hands on several projects and gained a great deal of experience in Industrial Design. We toured several companies; Accufab, FineLine Prototyping, ADR Hydro-Cut, and JMC Tool to name a few. The atmosphere was great and everyone was really helpful and welcoming. We had a great time camping and the advice I received will be really helpful for my future as an Industrial Designer.

As always,
Daniel Helms

Lastest News — Montie Design Ranked in Top 50 Area Companies in Web Traffic and User Engagement by AreaStartups.com

Montie Design Ranked in Top 50 Area Companies in Web Traffic and User Engagement

National Rankings Lists Innovation and Commercialization Firm at Number 42
MORRISVILLE, N.C.–Innovation and commercialization firm Montie Design is generating enough buzz about its expertise in taking products from concept to marketplace to merit a place in the top 50 of greater Raleigh area companies in terms of user engagement and website traffic.

The rankings, from AreaStartups.com, lists Montie Design at number 42, joining such high-profile companies as Channel Advisor, iContact, SAS, Global Knowledge Training, and Bandwidth.com as online destinations for customers and prospects interested in securing top-quality products and services.

The list is compiled monthly using data to measure overall traffic and engagement. The founders of Area Startups provide the rankings to promote information about companies in each major startup geographic area across the U.S., track their progress, and deliver relevant news and job listings in the various coverage areas.

Paying special attention to achieving excellence in functionality, operability, value and aesthetics regardless of market or industry, Montie Design staffers have helped turn over 750 exciting product ideas into reality. The team is active in the product design and engineering market sector, utilizing a combined 140 years of knowledge and experience helping clients realize products that are economical to manufacture, elegant and robust.

In addition to serving customers in a myriad of industry sectors, Montie Design produces its own Montie Gear line of outdoor equipment, including a slingshot; ultralight knife; multi-purpose tree hook archery rest for sturdy support of a bow, crossbow, or rifle with a sling; a camp rack designed to hold pots, lids, serving bowls and utensils off the ground to dry after cleaning; and the popular X-Rest and AR-Rest shooting supports for hunters and recreational shooters.

All equipment in the Montie Gear line is heirloom quality, Troublesome Gap tough. Located near the peak of Hap Mountain overlooking Spring Creek, North Carolina, Troublesome Gap is a rugged mountain area where Montie Gear prototypes are tested and evaluated.

For more information contact Montie Roland, company president, at montie@montie.com.

About Montie Design

Montie Design is an innovation and commercialization firm with core competencies in mechanical engineering and industrial design. Active in the product design, defense, and technology sectors, we leverage years of industry leadership and extensive technical capabilities to help clients take products from concept to marketplace that are economical to manufacture, elegant and robust. Montie Design is a North Carolina company headquartered in the Research Triangle region with clients across the country and overseas. We are dedicated to economic development throughout our home state and furthering excellence in design and engineering. For more information, visit www.montie.com.

Whisker Biscuit Mount Update and Breakdown Arrow Holster

Hey Y’all,

This week we’ve made some progress with some accessories for the Y-Shot Slingshot and the Breakdown Arrows. The Whisker Biscuit Mount came in, it looks and works great! We still may change the design a bit more but, that’s mainly aesthetic. A few weeks ago we started working with Bob from bobsleatherworks.com and we came up with design for a holster for the Breakdown Arrow Set. This holster holds 3 arrows and fits on belts up to 2 inches wide. Expect more pictures as we do more testing.

Thanks for Reading,
Daniel Helms

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Ammo dispenser update

So we’ve kept working on ammo dispensers for the slingshots. The magnets are working really well on all the concepts, and I’m confident that by the time we’re done we’re gonna have a couple of great products.

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The big advantage with the leather concept is that it has great functionality, despite a really simple design. We put shock cord through the loops in the leather, which makes it very flexible. The number of ways to attach the dispenser to just about anything seems almost endless!

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Another concept from the early idea generation process that we brought back to life is a really simple construction consisting of a piece of bent aluminum plate and a single magnet. The idea is that the container encloses the balls to protect them from being pushed off if the container bumps in to something. The magnet, which sits in the bottom slot, makes sure that new ammo is automaticly feeded out as a ball is removed.

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As you can see this simple mock-up already works great, although we might still have a bit of work to do when it comes to the aestethics. More of that some other time!

/Robin

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More slingshot accessories

Hey agin!

So the slingshot sights are sent off for prototype parts to be made and we’re all looking forward to try them out once they get back! Since then I’ve been working on developing some handy ball dispensers for the slighshot ammunition. As the most frequently used ammo for slingshots are steel balls it didn’t take long to realize that magnets could be very useful for these products!

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After receiving some a bunch of different magnet samples, some early ideas were tried out by building some quick mock-up models. Most ideas worked out really well with the magnets and after a day of testing we had three pretty solid concepts; one in aluminium, one in leather and one that could go on your wrist or belt.

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This friday has been spent exploring different designs for these concepts. We’re getting somewhere with all of them and the next step will be to build some more accurate prototypes to fully test the functionality. Will keep you posted  on how that goes! Below are some sketches of possible designs.

/Richard

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Single Point Rifle Sling Prototype

Hey Guys! I’m the last of the summer interns to introduce myself! My Name is Brett Holmes. I’m an Ohio native (GO BUCKEYES!) enjoying my new home here in North Carolina.  I’m a Drafting and Design student at ITT-Tech. I’ve been working on a single point rifle sling. This includes any rifle from a hunting rife to an AR. It makes long hikes and foot marches easier to bear by taking the weight off of the users arms and puts it on their backpack or vest.

Strap Assembly Pic 1

In this picture i was working on assembly instructions for the slings 5-50 cord section.

Strap assembly pic 2

Here’s the finished 5-50 cord section of the sling. As you can imagine this was a fairly complicated pattern to learn however, I enjoyed the challenge! I’m looking forward to keeping you guys updated on the progress of the Sling!! Check in next week for more pictures and news on the great things happening here at Montie Design!!

 

Brett Holmes

Whisker Biscuit Mount for Y-Shot Slingshot

I’m Daniel, an intern at Montie Design this summer and I’ll be starting my Senior year in Industrial Design at Appalachian State University this fall. I’ve been working on a Whisker Biscuit Mount for the Y-Shot Slingshot and it’s going pretty well.

I started by looking into ways that people were already shooting arrows from slingshots and ran across a video by Dave Cantebury. Dave was using a simple keyring and a few pieces of rubber to shoot arrows from his slingshot. This looked like a great idea to me, so I used the Y-Shot Arrow Rest with some pieces of shock cord to make a similar set up. It worked great but, a whisker biscuit would be better. This gave me an idea for how to mount the whisker biscuit and use brackets from the Y-Shot Arrow Rest.

The concept is a tube that will hold the whisker biscuit in place and use shock and cable to attach to the Y-Shot brackets. So far, everything is going well and we should be working on a model soon.

Thanks for Reading,
Daniel Helms

Key Ring Arrow Rest Adapted from Dave Cantebury

Whisker Biscuit Mount Concept

New Projects – Richard

Arriving as an intern at Montie Design really gets you straight into the action. I study Industrial Design Engineering at Chalmers University in Sweden and will spend the summer as an intern at Montie Design. Some of the smaller project us interns have started are based on accessorizing the popular Y-shot slingshot. Many ideas are flowing and below is one example which is a sight system that will be mounted on the side of the slingshot.

Regards,

Richard

Ideation sketches for iron sight and mounting bracket
Mockup model using foam board and an old bracket
Mockup model using foam board and an old bracket
Quick marker sketch of fiber optic iron sight concept
Quick marker sketch of fiber optic iron sight concept

Gathering Product Requirements Lunch and Learn taught by Andy Roth

Montie Design - Gathering Product Requirement Lunch and Learn on 4 Jun 13

 

Andy Roth came by on Tuesday at lunch to teach a class on Gathering Product Requirements.  He gave the talk to a full house!  Thanks for everyone who came and participated.  The talk was great and I really learned a lot.  Here are some takeaways from the talk:

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Product Requirements Gathering Presentation by Andy Roth – a Power Point presentation

Watch the  Jeanne Robertson clip shown during the presentation.  This clip really exemplifies how specification gathering can go wrong without timely communication.

Podcast: Rightsizing Your Product

“Right sizing” your product means designing products that fit the market and can be practically produced.  Waiting to long to release a product to manufacturing and the market can be worse than releasing too early, because if you wait until its perfect then you’ll never get it out the door.  Lets talk about the concept of having just enough features and benefits for your product to succeed.  Solve a simple problem in a simple way and you’ll have a great product.

2013 April – Rightsizing Your Product