This was a difficult challenge for everyone involved with a tough and unfamiliar design problem. It worked out in the end - we had 67 entries. Of these, we chose 5 winners. Congrats to Marcin Otreba, Grant Griffin, Joshua Shepherd, Patrick Hughes and Ramses Chavez!
Lurssen decided to work with GrabCAD to see if the Crowd can really resolve an engineering problem. GrabCAD has the largest community of engineers and designers and bring lots of different skills and experience to the table. Better yet, many submissions from our previous entries are vetted and commented on by other users to help improve it. At the first stage, Lurssen gave us all the documentation that didn't conflict with their clients interest or open up trade secrets. Ultimately, every client wants to have a useable solution at the end of the day yet not give an inch to competitors. Our principals of Open Engineering occasionally do collide with business sense - we at GrabCAD strive to find a balance.
During this Challenge we began to move away from getting heavily involved in answering questions from users about the requirements and the ideal solution - that is up to the client. In the end, the client knows what is possible and impossible to manufacture and sell. Between launch and completion of a challenge, clients like Lurssen have to converse with users. Many of our most successful challenges (where the winning design is actually used) have happened because of vigorous client-engineer interaction. A great example has been our challenge with Trovare to make the Amico Bracelet.
The Lurssen challenge produced a great deal of thoughtful work. Going over the entries again, one can see a number of completely original designs as well as repurposed or inspired hinge systems. Marcin's winning design re-engineered seatbelt locking clutch systems as a solution (above). And that is exactly what creativity is. It is connecting two unrelated ideas to create something new and valuable. Combined with the untapped knowledge, experience and know-how of the GrabCAD community, these challenges are a great way for companies to break out of the mould and find a creative solution. Although the Lurssen challenge was a success, the great challenges we've had depend on active client support and clear documentation and technical specs to save users time and allow them to develop a compelling and truly valuable submission.
