A local inventor is taking the next step in the process of making his idea a reality. He has taken his idea to Kickstarter, a website designed to help inventors and entrepreneurs raise capital for their projects.
David Burrell is an Eagle Scout and Greenwood native. A conversation with a friend about how people generally lack the knowledge to tie a variety of knots sparked an idea. So Burrell went out to his CNC machine, which he built himself, and cut out a prototype of what eventually became known as the Loop Alien rapid cord attachment.
The Loop Alien is a small, lightweight cord attachment and tensioning device. It allows the user to connect and adjust rope or cord to just about anything, quickly and easily. The original version was much larger and heavier. The current version is 1.25 inches by 0.9 inches and weighs just 2.6 grams. A discussion with friends about how extreme campers count every gram they carry led to the current design.
With a design in hand, Burrell needed a name. He went to his family and asked their opinion. His children said it looked like an alien and his wife said the name needed to have the word loop in it. So he named the device the Loop Alien. The devices are currently being made from high-grade aluminum, but Burrell has visions of making both stainless steel and titanium versions.
Burrell put his project on Kickstarter, a website designed to bring creators and backers together. A person with an idea, like Burrell, puts their project on Kickstarter with the details of the project and the goal for the amount of capital. Kickstarter gives the project an allotted amount of time to achieve that goal. If the goal is achieved, Kickstarter gets 5 percent of the money raised and Amazon Payments receives 5 percent.
Burrell has established tiers for his backers, with various rewards for different levels of support. The levels begin at $5, though any amount over $1 can be pledged, and backers receive a larger number of the Loop Aliens the more support they provide. The highest tier is $45 and above. As of Saturday at midnight, Burrell had nearly 300 supporters pledging almost $9,000 for the project. The target is $13,300. Burrell says he will begin making stainless steel Loop Aliens when he reaches $15,000.
Burrell says that a manufacturing company will rough cut the Loop Aliens for him and he will do all of the finish work himself, which will include removing the tabs from the cutting process and finishing the devices.
The ML20 Markless sensor from Sick Inc. detects the cutting position for label applications without the use of print marks or place markers, enabling more flexibility in package designs and minimizing material waste.
Suitable for web film control in bottling and roll-fed labeling machines, the system combines accurate positioning with high-speed web detection. It provides sensing speeds up to 7 m/s and an accuracy of up to 0.6 mm.
The IP 65-rated sensor improves processes when multiple film changes are required by OEMs and end users. Programming is accomplished through Sopas software, the sensor onboard control panel or a “teach in” process.
Sick also manufactures safety systems, machine vision and automatic identification products for factory and logistics automation.
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