Blue Dolphin R&D to Host State-of-the-Art 3D Printer Showcase 3D Print a Tri Tip Dinner?  We’re still working on the technology to three-dimensionally print food, but for now the real thing will do just fine. Blue Dolphin R&D, a Blue Dolphin Design and Engineering Company, is hosting a showcase for its state-of-the-art Polyjet 3D printer with dinner and wine catered by Pardini’s on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at the Blue Dolphin/B-K Lighting building located at 40429 Brickyard Drive in Madera (5 minutes from River Park).  The event highlights the latest technology being used by Blue Dolphin’s Research and Development division to create prototypes for inventors and businesses located in the Central Valley. GoEngineer will be sponsoring the event and will be demonstrating FDM printer technology. Everyone who attends will be entered to win a $1,000* in 3D printing from Blue Dolphin. Please respond to the attached e-vite so we can prepare for everyone (click on the  register button below). *3D printing offer restricted to one job (could be of several parts) and limited to $250.00 of material (that’s a lot).

Join us for this learning event and find out how 3D printing can allow you to speed projects and reduce risk.  Complimentary BBQ dinner included.     register Day/Time:  August 27th @ 4:00-7:00PM Location:  Blue Dolphin Design and Engineering, Inc., 40429 Brickyard Drive, Madera, CA, 93636 (5 minutes from River Park, near Valley Children's)

WHAT IS FEA?

WHAT THE HECK IS AN FEA?

OK, so a lot of you have heard me talk about doing an “FEA” on your design to optimize it.  We normally explain what we are going to do when performing an FEA but I thought it might be helpful to give a little more of an explanation.

First of all, I should mention that most of us here at Blue Dolphin are engineers.  Now you don’t have to be an engineer to develop a product, but there are definitely times when having that kind of ability at your disposal is incredibly valuable and sometimes it is even required.  We like to approach the solution to your research and development project and product innovations not only from the prospective of our 150 years combined experience but also from an engineering viewpoint.

Finite Element Analysis or FEA is one of the tools we use as engineers to arrive at answers.  A simple explanation of FEA is that it breaks the problem we are trying to solve into very small bits and calculates the interaction of all of these bits to each other.  In school, engineers learn to solve FEA by doing hand calculations – a veeery long and tedious process.  Fortunately there are very sophisticated (and expensive) softwares out there that help us solve these calculations and even give us graphical results.  That’s the good part.

The bad part is that, as the saying goes, “Garbage in = garbage out!”.  It is important to recognize that understanding how the parameters are entered can drastically affect the answer and that verifying the results with a few hand calculations can be invaluable.

I’ll give you an example of the importance of this.  A few years back Shell Oil gave us a problem to solve.  It involved a pressurized natural gas tank.  They were given the results of an analysis that didn’t make sense to them.  After we reviewed the results we agreed and set out to perform our own FEA.  The following is a graphical output of the results:

It was apparent to us that some of the parameters used in the original analysis were in error and, therefore, gave erroneous results.  Our analysis allowed Shell to proceed with a successful design.

Blue Dolphin Design and Engineering’s FEA capability includes:

Thermal Fluid Analysis       Nonlinear Analysis      Linear Stress Analysis     Structural Optimization Structural Optimization     Motion Analysis          Fatigue Analysis               Vibration Analysis     Thermal Analysis                 Structural Analysis

Performing these types of Analysis allows Blue Dolphin to optimize your design on the computer and reduce the amount of evaluation required using prototypes. 

If you would like more information on what FEA is or how you might benefit from it give us a call. 

Mark A. Jackson P.E.
President
Blue Dolphin Design and Engineering, Inc.
559-222-4111

CHALK TALK VIDEO FOR INVENTORS

Our New Chalk Talk Video
A Short Chalk Talk Video for Inventors
So we have had our Marketing Gurus work on a Chalk Talk video that describes how Blue Dolphin Design and Engineering helps inventors.  This is only a part of what Blue Dolphin does.  It is a big part, however,

WHATS IN A NUMBER?

There are many factors to consider when pursuing a product idea.  One of them is what is the size of the market or how many of these widgets do I think I can sell?  There are several aspects of the development of the product that are influenced by this number. 

WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT 3D PRINTING?

So a lot of you have been asking to know more about 3 D printing.  Well CBS did a news story about us and our 3 D printing and I think it might help shed some light on what this technology is about.

THE PROTOTYPE PROGRESSION

The progression of a product design includes many steps.  These steps can change somewhat depending on the customer’s final intent.  A typical progression might start with a patent search followed by brainstorming of ideas for a solution to the customer’s idea.   The next step involves the engineering and creation of a “virtual prototype” using CAD (Computer Aided Design) software. Once we believe that we have arrived at a successful virtual design, a rapid prototype is usually recommended.

WHAT'S IN A NUMBER?

There are many factors to consider when pursuing a product idea.  One of them is what is the size of the market or how many of these widgets do I think I can sell?  There are several aspects of the development of the product that are influenced by this number.