Design BUZZ
A competition for product designers and engineers to design a tool for the urban beekeeper
Beekeeping seems to be undergoing a renaissance at the moment. Ever since the announcement of the Colony Collapse Disorder a few years back, urban dwellers have either been planting bee friendly flowers in their gardens or actually joining the beekeeping ranks themselves. Location doesn’t seem to be a problem, with hives being kept in small gardens and on roof terraces overlooking the city below.
In order to be a beekeeper there are a number of essential tools, apart form the beehive obviously, that need to be purchased. One well-known piece of equipment in the beekeeper’s toolkit is the smoker. Available in various sizes in stainless steel or copper, the basic premise is that you place lit fuel (whether it be smoke cartridges, hessian sacking or twigs) inside the smoker and then use the bellow to puff the smoke out through the nozzle. By directing the smoke towards the bees, it calms them down when the beekeeper comes to inspect the hive. The modern day smoker was created in around 1875 and since then the design hasn’t changed much. Is it time for a redesign? We think so.
There are a number of pitfalls to the current design of the smoker including how much and what type of fuel is appropriate to use. There is an issue in not only keeping the fuel alight but also adjusting the amount of smoke that comes out the nozzle and relying on the direction of the wind to push the smoke where you want it to go; difficulty in puffing smoke and picking up frames of honey at the same time and lastly, with most smokers, there is no place to safely leave them while inspecting the hive.
Requirements
Redesign a piece of beekeeping equipment (such as the smoker) or design a completely new tool to add to the beekeeper’s toolkit that is user friendly, sustainable, easy to manufacture and bee friendly.
Create a sketch, 3D CAD model or rendering of your concept with a brief description of how it works.
Rules
This challenge is open to everyone
You can submit several designs
Tag your model with “Beekeepertool” to make it easier to find
Competition ends July 30, 2012, last time zone
Prizes
3D physical prototype of the design and NVIDIA graphics card
- 1st Prize
IPF (http://ipfl.co.uk/ ) will produce a 3D physical prototype of the winning design. The winner will also receive a NVIDIA Quadro 2000 by PNY (www.pny.eu): A mid-range professional graphics solution with 1GB of GDDR5 memory for fast processor complex models.
- Runner up prize
NVIDIA Quadro 600 by PNY (www.pny.eu): An entry level professional graphics solution with 1GB of DDR3 memory.
- Special mention prizes
A chance to have a stake in your very own beehive throughout he British Beekeepers Association's 'Adopt a Beehive' initiative
About the jury?
Judges include a panel of design professionals as well as experienced beekeepers.
The winning designs will be showcased on develop3d.com and in the September issue of DEVELOP3D magazine.
The British Beekeeping Association: http://www.bbka.org.uk/
3D Printing Specialists IPF: http://ipfl.co.uk/
About Develop 3D
DEVELOP3D is a print and digital resource which tracks the essential technologies used throughout the entire product development process.
With a globally respected editorial team with unparalleled industry experience, DEVELOP3D analyses and disseminates emerging technologies whilst engaging engineers and designers and assisting them in their increasingly complex software and hardware selection process.
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Deadline Passed
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Total entries 34Private 1
- Who’s in the jury?
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Tanya Weaver
Develop 3D
Have an awesome idea for this competition? Want to win cool prizes? Sign-up now to upload your entries.
42 comments
Tomas 12 months ago
Nice challenge! :)
Ron 12 months ago
Is it possible to have a list of tools that you think need to be innovated in the beekeeping industry?
Matt Stinson 12 months ago
interesting challenge will hopefully be making a few entries
Matt Stinson 12 months ago
do we have to sumbit a sketch with a CAD model or can we just upload the model?
CRAIG T 12 months ago
amin202 already been done.... http://www.beezsmoker.com/Bee-Smoker-Product.html#
Tanya Weaver 12 months ago
Hi Ron,
There are a number of innovations that I think the beekeeping industry could benefit from. The bee smoker is one of them, for the reasons mentioned in the challenge.
As an amateur beekeeper myself, who only started beekeeping a couple of months ago, these are the products/tools I think would be interesting to design:
- As I often do the inspections on my own I find it difficult to document what I am doing and lift the frames out at the same time. I have my own beekeeping blog so I want to take lots of photos but I can't hold the frame (as it's heavy and can't be done one handed and take photos at the same time). So, maybe an idea for a 'bee camera' would be good.
- I also think a 'Swiss Army' style knife tool would be good. This handy gadget could contain all that the beekeeper needs including scissors to cut off excess comb, a bee tool to edge apart the frames, a scraper to scrape off any excess propolis....
- A toolbox to keep all the beekeeper's tools in that he/she may need for an inspection. Sort of like a fishing tackle box but for beekeepers. Beekeepers need to take a lot with them to each inspection, which can often be cumbersome to drag around each time.
- The weather here in the UK has been pretty terrible and you shouldn't open the hive when it's raining. So maybe an idea for an umbrella or temporary roof would be good
On the DEVELOP3D blog recently we featured HEFTI, a beekeeping tool designed by students, that may also give you further inspiration. Here is the link: http://develop3d.com/blog/2012/06/engineering-students-create-an-innovative-beekeeping-tool
Hope that helps. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.
Tanya
Tanya Weaver 12 months ago
@amin202
The smoker varies in size so I wouldn't worry too much about dimensions. This link may help as it gives you size and dimensions: http://www.dave-cushman.net/bee/smok.html
And yes, you can add electronic parts to your design.
Tanya Weaver 12 months ago
@MStino
We are accepting all formats that you'd like to send it in so a CAD model, hand drawn sketch, renderings are all fine. However, if you do win the challenge, your design will be made into a 3D prototype so you'll need to be able to provide us with a file that IPF can work with.
Ron 12 months ago
@Tanya Weaver, thanks for the help!
Ron 12 months ago
@Tanya, if we had something in our design such as straps, would want us to give you exact dimensions on the lengths of the straps? Just want to double check on that.
Tanya Weaver 12 months ago
@Ron it's not vital to have the exact dimensions but a rough estimate would be good.
Thaynan Pereira de Faria 12 months ago
Funny!
Tanya Weaver 12 months ago
@amin202 That's cool. I look forward to seeing it.
girisha krishnappa 12 months ago
thanks Tanya for the inputs. Looking forward tobe part of the challenge.
Adam Pohl 11 months ago
Yes, thanks Tanya your input is very helpful!
Adam Pohl 11 months ago
Doing a little research, thought this could be useful: http://www.beekeepingstarterkit.com/equipment
Ron 11 months ago
Does anyone know a rough estimate of the weight of all the tools combined?
Jonathan Calvert 11 months ago
Ive submitted my design moments ago for this competition but as I refresh the page I cannot see my design! Any suggestions.....
Matt Stinson 11 months ago
i would message someone at grabcad or possibly tanya weaver as she seems very involved in this challenge (so may be on jury or work with challenge company)
Jonathan Calvert 11 months ago
Thankyou MStino. How do I contact Tanya Weaver?
Jonathan Calvert 11 months ago
No worries, ive recieved a message from GrabCAD regarding the problem
Thanks for your help
Kaspar Kiis 11 months ago
@Jonathan, your entry is on the list now.
Kaspar Kiis 11 months ago
Can everybody please make sure they have their designs listed in http://grabcad.com/challenges/design-buzz/entries Also please make sure the private entries are made public.
Muhd Sufyan 11 months ago
@Kaspar, My design is not listed.. How can I get it listed?
Kaspar Kiis 11 months ago
@Muhd, It is listed now.
Bozix 11 months ago
@Kaspar, I sent my work to tanya@x3dmedia.com, do I have to publish my work here?
trey haney 10 months ago
How is the judging on this competition going?
Drazen 10 months ago
I can't see that winner and runner up designs among all these entries... And I don't get what does swarm catcher has to do with bee smoker competition.
Tanya Weaver 10 months ago
@srecko4ever The brief was to design a piece of beekeeping equipment or design a completely new tool - it didn't specifically have to be a smoker. And although the competition appeared on GRABCAD's website, and we got many great entries from GRABCAD members, we also publicised the competition in our magazine (DEVELOP3D) and website so the winner and runner up are actually from readers of our magazine and were submitted to me directly.
Drazen 10 months ago
I thought GC was the only one involved. Thank you for your quick answer. Cheers
dano vinson 10 months ago
The design brief didn't mention new tool design. All GC entries clearly saw only the request for a smoker. So, the design brief was meant to deceive or was poorly planned. Which is it?
Tanya Weaver 10 months ago
@dano vinson If you look at the 'Requirements' above, it clearly states a redesign or a new tool.
Voibor 10 months ago
We see only one item submitted for the contest (Buzz smoker). Where did the rest (as they were Participants Grabcad)?
Voibor 10 months ago
Видно только одно изделие представленное на конкурсе (Buzz smoker). Откуда взялись остальные (как они стали учасниками Grabcad)?
dano vinson 10 months ago
37 entries - all but 3 are smokers. Perhaps I am not the only one that read this wrong.
Christopher.R 10 months ago
Thank you Amin ,I am more happy that I have got a place in the first challenge I participated.
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