Blog | Salient Technologies, Inc.

23 Jun 2020

Salient Office David Yakos, Laser Cutting Permalink

Happy Ears

Salient Office June 23, 2020

Here at Salient Technologies, we love our laser cutter. It is well worth its keep for making prototypes. We love it even more when we can use it to help our local medical professionals! David Yakos recently used the laser cutter to cut “Happy Ears”. Happy Ears are a simple strip of plastic that holds medical mask straps securely to the back of the head. Normally, a medical mask is held to the face with elastic around the ears. When worn all day, this elastic can rub and irritate the ears.

Since medical professionals wear masks all day now, they are especially vulnerable to sad, irritated ears caused by mask straps. When David heard about this, he went right to work cutting strap holders on the laser cutter out of 0.06” ABS plastic from our workshop supply. Our 48 by 36 inch laser cutter can make about 50 strap holders in an hour, unlike a 3D printer, which takes 3 hours to make just one strap holder. Bozeman Deaconess Hospital as well as a number of other medical professionals were grateful to receive them!

Always looking to bring in a little joy, David even cut a smiley face on both ends of every strap holder. They bring happiness and comfort in more ways than one!

If you have a laser cutter, feel free to make strap holders with free to download files. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4273522/files Please let us know if we can make you some, regardless of your profession.

29 Apr 2020

Salient Office Uncategorized Permalink

Innovation for Skiing

Salient Office April 29, 2020

Salient Technologies is proud to partner with the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing to develop a new Sit Ski Binding Interface. The director of U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing reached out to Salient to develop a new interface between the seats used by Paralympic athletes and the newest Nordic skis. Incredibly, these athletes use only their upper bodies to propel them forward with their poles. As a result, their skiing equipment looks a bit different than what one might picture when thinking about Nordic skiing. These athletes need two attachment points between their skis and their seats, in contrast to only one attachment point needed for traditional Nordic skiing. The seats are able to interface with the binding used to hold the toe of a ski boot for one point of contact. While the old interface relied on drilling into the ski to mount a piece used to hold the rear of the ski onto the athlete’s seat for the second point of contact, the newer Nordic skis do not have the same internal structure upon which to mount the additional rear binding piece.

Since the structure in the skis changed with the change to Fisher’s Turnamic binding interface, the only place to connect to the rear of the ski is a plastic plate bonded to the ski. We took careful measurements of this plastic plate in order to reverse engineer a component to interface with the track on the plate. The new design is mounted into the rail on the bottom of the athlete’s seat. At the front of the track there is a bar to interface with the toe piece of a typical NNN Nordic binding. Our design featured a piece that slid into the track on the rear of the ski and then locked into the toe piece of the binding system. This system holds the seat securely to the skis without any modifications to the skis, besides removing the rear binding piece. This new system is also beneficial because it can be adjusted forward and backward on the ski to adjust for differing snow conditions.

We made our first version out of aluminum because it is lightweight and very durable. Through testing we discovered that the metal can ice up and make it difficult to remove the skis. Additionally, because the back piece pivoted to allow the ski to slide onto the seat and then lock in the front, it could be challenging to align the skis. In our second round of prototypes we addressed these issues. We chose a durable plastic instead of the aluminum to avoid icing issues. We also added a spring to hold the device in place, making it easier to put the skis on. We have been very happy with the performance of the second prototype and have not had any major issues thus far. Testing is continuing and we will continue to work closely with the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing director to add any additional modifications until the next winter Olympics.

Demri Horton is a mechanical designer at Salient Technologies. She too loves to ski.

21 Apr 2020

Salient Office Product Design & Development, Prototyping Permalink

Innovation During a Pandemic

Salient Office April 21, 2020

When the effects of COVID-19 began causing a shortage of personal protective equipment in America and Montana, Salient was quick to respond with design expertise. Salient designed an injection molded mask filter cartridge that is compatible with the standard 3M 6000 series masks to be mass produced in Montana. The team designed the mask in 3D CAD and then they 3D printed prototypes, which take about four hours each to 3D print. However, with injection molding, one filter cartridge can be produced in less than 60 seconds allowing for quick supply.

With a standard mask filter cartridge, it is difficult to sterilize the filter material inside. These cartridges must be thrown away. Salient designed a cartridge that easily opens by hand and snaps closed on all four sides. The N95-equivalent filter material can then be replaced or sterilized and reused. Salient’s previous experience designing many other various products allowed the Salient team to quickly respond and design a needed cartridge.

Removing the 3D printed prototype from the printer

Salient is proud to collaborate with many other Montana entities in the effort to respond to COVID-19. As one of several companies that raised their hand to collaborate through the Montana Manufacturing Extension Center COVID-19 rapid response task force, Salient was appointed to oversee the design of the bayonet mount filter cartridges and compatible mask to ensure a quick and standardized response. Several injection molding shops around the state have expressed interest and are ready and willing to manufacture personal protective equipment for the state and beyond. Montana Tech is currently conducting testing on the Salient-designed filter cartridges to help validate the airflow as it moves through the certification process bringing it closer to full production.

14 Apr 2020

Salient Office Team Member Projects Permalink

Building Frank

Salient Office April 14, 2020

Here at Salient we are not only professional designers; we are also creators and makers. We have gone through the same idea and trouble-shooting process that many of our clients have gone through. An example is Ross Walker’s motorcycle project, during which he experienced first-hand the trial and error of building something. Along with Salient’s other engineers and designers, Ross knows how to tackle a problem to make a product better. Following is the story of his motorcycle, in his words.

Concept

“Frank” started as a frame from a Honda 400ex four-wheeler and an engine from a Yamaha yz426 dirt bike. The suspension was a variety of old parts found around the shop and some new parts. None of these components were designed to work together, but on their own they had proven track records. At the time of Frank’s creation, I worked for a motorcycle performance shop, and on my lunch break my coworkers and I would talk about the perfect bike. After many sketches and talks, it was time to build a proof of concept. The rough part about building a custom motorcycle is the product testing can be a little…rough.

First Ride

Engineers can spend months planning out a weight balance using computer simulations, but I took a more primitive approach by hanging my frame from the garage rafters from the point I wanted the center of gravity to be. For the next 3 months I spent every spare moment I had welding brackets, wiring, grinding and machining to coax this engine into its new home and suspension into its place. It was not pretty but I proved it could be done. My first ride was…rough. I had to rev it to the moon to get moving, and the bike wobbled and shook as I rocketed down the street. My victory drift in the driveway turned into a high side wreck flinging me straight up and straight down in front of my friends gathered to see me and my Frankenstein emerge from the garage.

I had a lot of work ahead of me, the bike was together and running but not safe at full speed. Nearly every component had to be tuned to fit me and my needs. I changed the gearing, set the suspension to my weight and riding style, and moved the exhaust farther from my leg. I had to replace the handlebars completely after my unsuccessful victory lap. A smooth trip up and down the road was my reward.

The Test

The test took place at my local stomping grounds on a winding trail through Oregon’s old growth trees. I started slowly over the rough terrain making suspension adjustments after every pass. As the day went on, my bike performed better and better. Because I was riding the machine, any failures were immediately obvious to me. The rear shock had an additional reservoir of oil, and I had run the lines in what I thought was a safe path. I was at top speed when my chain ate the line turning my shock into a springboard causing me to lose control, clipping a tree. The impact snapped the spindle and sent me flying through the air. My protective gear did its job, but for the next five miles I had a lot of time to think about what went wrong and how to improve. It was a very rough day of testing.

At this point there was some fine tuning to be done, but I couldn’t let that keep me from moving the project forward, and so it was time for cosmetics. I disassembled Frank and reevaluated every part through the lens of everything I had learned so far on this project. If a part was not beneficial to the design, I removed or upgraded it. I had every component cleaned, polished, and powder coated. Back in my shop, I carefully put Frank back together for what I hoped was the last time.

DuneFest

A freshly painted bike built from the ground up was my chariot at Oregon’s celebration of all dune riders. I enjoyed the bike compliments, but I got giddy when asked, “What is it, and how do I get one?” It had been a long journey of ups and downs to get to that point. Frank had thrown me to the ground many times, challenging me to give up, but in the end we lined up side by side with people from all walks of life that shared my passion to build and ride. For the next 1/8th mile our stories were told as we all started at the same place, but those that put in the work were rewarded for our time.

Ross Walker is part of the Salient Team as a mechanical designer. He continues to enjoy working on his vehicles.

11 Oct 2019

David Yakos David Yakos, Plastic Waste, Toys & Games Permalink

We’re all on the Same Boat

David Yakos October 11, 2019

By David Yakos

The phrase, “we’re all in the same boat” has new meaning for me after taking part in the inaugural Ocean Plastic Leadership Summit. As a first-of-its-kind expedition, SoulBuffalo compiled more than 150 leaders from the largest chemical companies, plastic producers, and environmental groups from around the globe. The group met out at sea for four days on a 400 foot ship in one of the highest concentrations of ocean plastic.

As Outside Magazine reported, “Recycling is broken. The oceans are trashed. As the plastics crisis spirals out of control, an unlikely collection of executives and environmentalists set sail for the North Atlantic Gyre in a desperate attempt to find common ground.” Outside Magazine

The purpose of the expedition was to explore new avenues that would eliminate the 14 million tons of plastic that makes its way to the ocean every year. One of the primary focuses was the reduction or elimination of the biggest culprit, single-use plastic. Leading product companies, including Dow Chemical, Coca Cola, Nestle Waters, G.E., Clorox, Mary Kay, and Hasbro, were all on board with several, often anti-corporate environmental groups including Greenpeace, World Wildlife Fund, Upstream, and the 5 Gyres Institute. Everyone had one goal in common: to bring about positive change, no matter how challenging. Publications including National Geographic and Outside Magazine documented the summit and created transparency and accountability. I was fortunate enough to be part of the facilitation team comprised of HATCH alumni to work through the occasionally uncomfortable conversation, brainstorm solutions for this global issue, and get commitments for actionable items from industry leaders.

Floating in the Bermuda Triangle was far from the normal boardroom meeting, especially considering that part of the expedition involved putting on wetsuits and snorkels, piling into zodiacs, and swimming with trash in the Sargasso Sea. There we learned that there are higher concentrations of trash in the convergences of the ocean currents, called gyres. To my surprise, the problem is not an isolated floating island of trash, but rather billions of small pieces of plastic that are mixed into the whole. Yes, we did find things like toilet seats, shoes, and toothbrushes, but the small parts that cannot be removed are the true problem. Sadly, plastic has become the new sand, which releases toxins in the water and can often be found in the wildlife. On the expedition, we drug trawling nets behind the zodiac rafts, collecting specimens and examining them on the ship in the mobile lab. We counted the plastic pieces in the fishes’ stomachs and gathered plastic readings for the gyre research. We broke into our lab groups comprised of people with various points-of-view, from production to environmental. These conversations could have easily escalated without any positive outcome, but with the common goal in mind, we pinpointed tangible actions to implement. Although there is not a single switch to flip that fixes the problem, the sum of many single actions makes an enormous difference. It was no accident that the manifest was comprised of people in the position to affect change in their companies.

The goal, as highlighted in a Forbes interview, was “to more tightly integrate the areas of leadership, sustainability and innovation.” FOR B ES That is exactly what happened. Companies made measurable commitments, such as using 50% recycled plastic by 2030 to eliminate plastic waste in packaging.

As a toy and game inventor, wondering how to affect change from the inside, I asked, “what if we, as inventors, make one of our licensing terms, ‘no single-use plastic in the packaging.’ Would companies consider it?” Hasbro, which had representatives on the boat, unofficially responded that they were exploring how to be more environmentally responsible and that they wanted to continue the conversation. I was more than happy to see this playful trendsetter make this announcement only a few months later,

“Beginning in 2020, Hasbro will begin phasing out plastic from new toy and game packaging across its portfolio of iconic brands like NERF, MY LITTLE PONY, MONOPOLY, MAGIC: THE GATHERING and POWER RANGERS.” Hasbro

Before this experience, I did not see myself as an “environmentalist”, but now I feel a renewed sense of responsibility and stewardship for this beautiful planet. The way I see it, we as humans are all in the same boat and every choice that creates positive change helps. I am grateful for the responsible decisions from groups like Hasbro who are committing to make a global difference in the industry of play, and I hope that their example will inspire others to do the same.

David Yakos is co-founder of Streamline Design and Salient Technologies, Inc. His article is also featured on the Chicago Toy and Game Week website.

16 Jul 2018

Salient Office Press Permalink

AeroPod – 2018 Eurobike Award Winner

Salient Office July 16, 2018

The AeroPod by Velocomp (a Salient client for many years), won the prestigious Eurobike Award in the “Bike Components” category. AeroPod was voted Outstanding for it’s degree of innovation, design, weight/ pack size.

You can read more about the Eurobike assessment of the Aeropod here.

In 2018, over 350 products were entered into the Eurobike Awards, and was judged by six industry experts.

Way to go, Velocomp!

EUROBIKE AWARD 2018 | Expert panel of judges – Jurysitzung from Messe Friedrichshafen GmbH on Vimeo.

05 Jul 2018

Salient Office Industrial Design, Product Design & Development, Uncategorized Permalink

8 Reasons Getting Outside Makes You a More Creative Design Thinker

Salient Office July 5, 2018

As a design and engineering consultancy, we feel living in Montana gives Salient a huge advantage in the realm of creativity and creative problem solving. It’s true that inspiration can be found just about anywhere – from backpacks dreamt up on mountain tops, to buildings modeled after crumpled up pieces of paper. However, we believe our energy and insight in the design world is fueled in part by gearing up, getting out, being immersed in and inspired by the details, forms, and colors of the wild, wide-open spaces that make this state so special. Not to mention the amount of hands-on testing and experimenting we get to do in this vast playground we call home!

In addition to funding personal projects with “Salient Initiatives” – which allow us to explore our curiosities in design – Salient offers many opportunities to employees that encourage us to get out and play in powder, take camping trips, and travel the world.

The following are just a few reasons we believe exploring and being active in the outdoors makes you a better design thinker:

Persistence: Try and fail, and try again

The tenant of Persistence is common in all outdoor recreations. As a first time ice climber, tackling the flows with Salient teammates this winter revealed muscles untrained, technique unrefined, and expectations that may not have matched reality. But failing fast, compelling forward, and trying until I physically couldn’t any longer are certainly traits I feel confident about bringing into my creative flow.

Noticing the Unnoticed: Taking time to slow down and zoom in (or out!)

Rock climbing is a big recreational activity for many at our office. As with many outdoor activities, while climbing you are 100 percent engaged, and focused on successfully sticking that next move – tackling one problem at a time. This focus, can bring a unique perspective, as you’re close enough to notice the things that remain unnoticed from a distance, like interestingly shaped pockets, colors, textures, and forms. Being on the rock promotes noticing these things in a different light than if one were to pass the whole rock face on a hike, or zip by on a bike – and can be truly eye-opening. Not only is this perspective inspiring as a designer, it also expands how I view these beautiful elements of nature. In good design, the simple, elegant, sometimes unnoticed details are the things that create a cohesive and complete product. If we can bring the practice of noticing the unnoticed into everyday life, it will surely bring a wealth of inspiration and perspective with it.

Simplify: Less is more

One of the first things we learn as designers is “less is more”! The “Simplify” concept translates seamlessly into lessons learned in the backcountry: bring less stuff. Not only will your outdoor experience be enhanced by forcing you to take in and use your surroundings, it will surely lighten up your pack, creating a more enjoyable hike to your destination. So, embrace the white space, use less text and fewer design elements for greater design-impact. A simpler, more focused, and intentional design often motivates better audience reaction.

Take Risks: Be daring!

Dare to think outside the box, and take the trail less traveled! The feeling while moving into the unknown isn’t always one that’s comfortable, there is often a sense unnerving shivers that flow throughout, and your mind almost always tries to talk you out of it. But taking conservative risks – in design as in adventure – will undoubtedly create a compelling experience that achieves the style-goal set and launches you into a feeling of pure bliss that leaves you wanting more. Rules and process are not absolute in design, but guidelines are there to get you started. Don’t be afraid to occasionally step off trail (when it’s smart), and take risks with your design, and creative thought process.

Propel your Practice: Human Powered

Most activities that are done here in the mountains are human powered. Whether skinning up a mountain to “earn your turns”, or placing cams to make your way up a gnarly crack on the side of a mountain to absorb the view from the top – you’re actively working for a result. The lesson of active work propelling my practice into success is one I find incredibly rewarding. Working hard, setting goals, and practicing your craft relentlessly will not only make you a stronger, faster designer, it will lead you to the level of refinement in your craft you strive for, and earn you the confidence to crush your goals in design, life, and adventuring.

Refresh: Make room in your mind from all of the confining details of everyday life

More room for creativity! Ever feel a little foggy after an average day plowing through your routine? The cure is raising that heartbeat, a bit of fresh air, or a sunset atop the highest point in town. I guarantee it. Gearing up, and getting outside makes you happier – It’s science! When you find yourself in a rut, to fuel your creative workflow sometimes all you need is a playful perspective. The fresh air and views create a great mindset for working through design problems. And when your mind is clear and refreshed, creativity has room to breathe, stretch, and settle into your next thoughtful design.

Turn Problems into Solutions: A positive and optimistic outlook is transformative

While venturing into unknown territory to in this case climb, surely has its benefits, it also means sometimes you get your vehicle stuck in the Kentucky backwoods and don’t have service to call for help… So rather than focusing on the problem at hand, and how unfortunate the situation happens to be. It’s helpful to get creative, stay positive, and makeshift a solution with the items you do have (sticks, debris, your own car mats) to get yourself out of there! The same is useful in design thinking, for example when designing furniture, sometimes toothpicks, popsicle sticks and tape can be your best friends to work through those tricky problems that arise as you try to move beyond the 2D form.

Image via: https://www.wildability.com/biomimicry/

Biomimicry: Inspiration in Nature

“Biomimicry is an approach to innovation that seeks sustainable solutions to human challenges by emulating nature’s time-tested patterns and strategies. The goal is to create products, processes, and policies—new ways of living—that are well-adapted to life on earth over the long haul.” -the Biomimicry Institute

Nature often has solutions to problems present to humans that we have never even thought of, yet they have existed for years. A common approach to implementing these solutions into current products is to observe nature and its patterns, then sketch and develop based on the properties of these natural occurrences.

I know not everyone has national parks and mountain tops in their backyard, but just getting out to the park, the pond, the forest preserve, or your own back patio can make a big difference in your creative design thinking. So, now that you know how to channel these unique experiences into your creative process, I challenge you to find your adventure, get outside and expand your design thinking tool box!

Rebecca Allison is an Industrial Designer at Salient Technologies, Inc. She has a passion for the outdoors and soft goods design. In her spare time, Becca can be found adventuring in the mountains, or dreaming up footwear she’d like to make some day.

01 Mar 2018

Salient Office Industrial Design, Product Design & Development, Prototyping, Sketching, Soft Goods, Uncategorized Permalink

Process Practice Makes It Perfect

Salient Office March 1, 2018

If you want to be good at basketball, it’s likely you’d spend hours dribbling, working on your layups, and shooting three pointers. Chances are, you wouldn’t go out to play only on Game Day when it’s all on the line, and hope for the best. Personally I’m not much of a ball-sports guy, but the analogy works.

Here at the Salient Soft Goods Department, we stay pretty busy with client projects on a daily basis, but unfortunately, much of that work cannot be shared with the public. Many of the staff members, including myself, still try to make time to keep our skills sharp through continued practice in personal projects. My most recent project is a classic soft goods item: the backpack. Here are some of the individual steps – lets walk through them together.

1. Defining a set of goals, styles, influences and attributes is a great place to start. These items can really help inform the projects direction, feel, and vision; and they can be used as a benchmark for individual questions and construction details later on.

2. A mood board or inspiration sheet allows you to examine different industries, specific materials, and any other items you might feel compelled to draw creativity from.

3. Sketch, sketch, sketch! I chose to focus on angular planes and shapes with rounded aspects dispersed throughout.

4. Define the basic dimensions. This can be done with paper/cardboard or computer programs – if you have access and knowledge.

5. Illustrate, define panels and construction details, pattern, and prepare to start fabrication. Alignment notches are your friends – use them! Patterning is an art in and of itself.

6. Gather materials and hardware. Local sources will have some items and can be a good start point, however, unless you have access to a specialty retailer, the internet might be the easiest place to purchase more technically oriented materials.

7. Cut and prepare materials. Laser cutters are amazingly accurate and fast tools, but good ol’ scissors have served well for many years prior to fancy, modern equipment.

8. Work backwards. Some seams and operations need to be done before others, and there is often a defined sequence that needs to be considered and worked through before sewing can begin.

9. Build. If individual panels or areas did not go as anticipated, they can be rebuilt – you might not need to finish the whole project first. And depending on the situation, you can learn more and push the project forward by learning from your mistakes. Few seams cannot be undone with a seam ripper (even if it is annoying and a step backward).

10. Use the result of all your hard work. First hand observation and testing is the best way to evaluate the overall effectiveness. Is it a good solution to the problem or goal? Evaluate the outcome – the good and bad; what went well, what was tough, what could go better next time – and improve on those aspects!

Document the final results and the process, for yourself and for others. Experiment, modify, and ultimately have fun! Sewing and the world of soft goods is a unique set of skills and knowledge, but the more you practice, the better and quicker projects will move along. Thanks for reading!

-Kirk Turner

Kirk Turner is an Industrial Designer, and has been bringing his brand of expertise to the Salient Team since 2015.

30 Jan 2018

Salient Office Product Design & Development, Prototyping, Soft Goods, Uncategorized Permalink

Extra-Special Overalls

Salient Office January 30, 2018

Seth Fishing 1

Fly fishing is popular here in Bozeman, MT… Children named Madison sit in most elementary classrooms. Summer sees the university students (some called Madison) from Montana State (aka Trout U) disembark for their break as anglers far-and-wide school to the trout-rich waters of the Missouri watershed. Toyota pickups haul drift-boats and dressed-down business magnates on guided pilgrimages to the Madison, Missouri, and Yellowstone…. while scruffy locals haul their Toyota pickups to favorite streams. The “intellectual capital” of a good piece of water– those glorious little capillaries where God Himself surely smiles on the solidarity and good bite that greets the invested angler– is worth as much to the visitors as the gold that brought Western man to Southwest Montana 150 years ago; and even more to the people that live here year-round.

I fish. I like it.

For years, I wet-waded from March through October. At 6’7″ and 180 lbs, manufactured fishing waders have never been an option. I have a 37″ inseam and 33″ waist, and the price to slide into a pair of those extra-special overalls seemED (emphasis on past tense) a little too “extra-“ for me.

It’s an entirely different blog post for another time, but modern garment grading (the process that creates the various sizes of a garment; usually S, M, L, XL in sportswear) fails to fit a conspicuous portion of the market: tall/slim builds; long arms; small waist/large thighs; petite women; large busts. It’s not anyone’s fault, that’s the status quo— a necessary evil to enjoy the quality and level of detail in a state-of-the-art piece of clothing—or is it?… But again, it’s a different bite of the elephant than we’ll take today.

So what to do? Like any reasonable person, I decided to make a pair.

I’ll admit, I am critical of the state of design for fishing waders. The level of detail shown – especially in construction – in some of the alpinism kits hasn’t transferred to the fishing market. The clean aesthetic that bonding technology can provide are not only hyper-modern, but more efficient for applications requiring waterproofness, avoiding material stack-up, registration, and if you pick your battles, labor. I aimed to make a rendition of wader design that centered around being “sleek”—low fuss, elegant, non-decorative. Truth be told, my everyday dress is quite “square”—I like traditional cuts and traditional aesthetics, but I wanted to make something unlike what anyone has seen…. Spoiler: it 80% worked.

Keep in mind: the full design and fabrication of these waders were on my own time after-hours over the winter season, and had only a single iteration in full-on waterproof breathable fabric, that is: the final iteration.

You can see from the process photographs that the first patterns were mocked up out of my favorite WPB substitute: painter’s plastic—wonderfully stable, with a hand similar to most 3-layer WPB, and CHEAP. It took nine iterations of pattern prototypes to block and then cut a final pattern that I was comfortable moving into the final fabric/construction with. As it came together, it fit as I expected. I chose to go stockingfoot on this pair—what I hadn’t foreseen, nor could try in the plastic prototypes, was how installing the neoprene booties would change the fit; constraining the lower leg. For all my “clever” patterning—the darts, billows, ease, and gussets—and prototyping, there were still factors I did not imagine that manifested themselves in the designed material.

Quick plug: this is where Salient design process thrives—material testing and R&D to work out process, material, and technical construction issues: chemical compatibility, patterning, material choice, cost reduction. We complete our work on-site, and in good time, getting answers from our studio/lab/shop to our clients faster and more clearly than a factory may.

I used the waders all year long with no failures: high, cold water in the springtime Missouri, low small-stream fishing, floating on the bitterly cold Big Hole, and finger-freezing brown trout runs. I see their value, and I know the amount of work that goes into them… fishing waders are a lovely piece of kit, and I am happy to have them now.

That lower leg, though… I might have to make a revised pair….

Seth Carlstrom is the head of the Soft Goods department at Salient. He has a degree in Mechanical Engineering from “Trout U”, textile certification from NC State, and was producing performance garments and gear to fit his lanky frame long before being introduced to industry.

30 Dec 2016

Salient Office Uncategorized Permalink

Salient 2016 Highlights

Salient Office December 30, 2016

Another year has gone by, and here at Salient, we have lots to be excited about!
Here (in no particular order) are just a few things that made our year great:

Working with a wide range of customers on over 160 products this year; ranging from leaf blowers to sippy cups and from playground
equipment to oceanic drones.
Winning the Prospera Business Network’s 2016 Innovator of the Year award
David Yakos won “Toy Innovator of the Year” at the ChiTag TAGIE Awards
Being Finalists for two TOTYs (Toy of the Year Awards) {the Oscars of the Toy & Game world}!:
1. Toy of the Year Finalist: Mega Tracks
2. Game of the Year Finalist: Circuit Maze
Acquiring a new 48×36 Laser cutter for large format cutting and etching fun
Launching a Soft Goods Department; including new industrial sewing machines, heat-cool press, Optitex workstation, hot air welder and seam taping machine
Purchasing a new FormLabs Form2 SLA 3D Printer for fast prototyping in multiple materials
Attending the Outdoor Retailer (O.R.) Summer Market
Attending HATCH Experience in Big Sky, Montana, and HATCH LatAm in Panama
Participating in the Montana Department of Commerce’s Montana Pavilion at ISPO in Munich, Germany
David addressed the Montana Ambassadors Annual Meeting & Conference as their Keynote speaker
Steve addressed MMEC Compete Smart at Fairmont Hot Springs Resort
Winning the People’s Choice Award at Blunderbuss Maker Faire
Enjoying delicious nitrogen-frozen gelato made by Kevin from Big Horn Valve Company
Attending the NY Toy Fair and receiving a Best of Toy Fair 2016 award
Being written up in Forbes for creativity
Collaborating with Helio + Company to create the first-ever 3D printed movie titles, which were used in The Fourth Phase