IMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF OUTDOOR PRODUCTS

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There are only a few laws that can never be broken when it comes to the development of hunting products…the laws of physics. Fortunately, Stress Outdoor®, a division of Stress Engineering Services, Inc. (Mason, Ohio) has the ability to understand and interpret the laws of physics resulting in product performance and safety advantages for our clients. Stress Outdoor® has a staff of 60 engineers with advanced engineering degrees and 25,000 square feet of test laboratory space devoted to helping clients develop new products or improve the performance of existing products that are used in the outdoor industry.

The outdoor hunting / sporting industry is as deep as it is wide. Categories range from firearms, archery, hunting and fishing to climbing, hiking, skiing and off-roading, with every form of performance

enhancing product and accessory in between. SES has a multitude of engineers, fully engaged in the outdoor lifestyle, trained in the underlying physics of mechanical engineering, composites, metallurgy, fluid dynamics, plastics and electrical engineering. As users of many of the products the industry offers we have a unique ability to help our clients develop better products for the outdoor industry.

ENGINEERING PRODUCTS FOR YOUR OUTDOOR LIFESTYLE

Stress Outdoor® office and test laboratory in Mason, Ohio, near Cincinnati.

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7030 STRESS ENGINEERING WAY, MASON OHIO 45040 | 513.336.6701

Archery

Archery has seen a remarkable transition over the centuries. From a design and material perspective, today’s modern vertical bow or crossbow is a far cry from the handmade longbows, wooden arrow shafts and flint broadheads used many years ago. These new more complex products and accessories are a challenge to develop. As avid hunters and competitive shooters,

the Stress Outdoor® engineering staff not only has the experience of using these products but also applying the governing principles of physics and engineering to their design. We couple this experience with state-of-the-art analysis and testing technology to help you critically evaluate existing products and develop new, better performing ones, much faster than ever before possible.

SES uses computational fluid dynamics technology to predict the aerodynamic drag on arrow heads and calculate the loss in arrow velocity based on the design of the broadhead.

Photo of inside of Stress Outdoor® semi-anechoic chamber which was constructed to measure vertical and cross bow and air gun noise. High speed video can also be used during testing to better understand and correlate string dynamics with measured vibration and noise data.

Above: Composite limb vertical bow instrumented with strain gauges to measure vibration and calculate stress.Below: Sound pressure data for bow firing, including sound pressure levels made while the arrow is in flight.

The SES Outdoor® noise and vibration test facility is designed to accommodate mechanical and human shooters.

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7030 STRESS ENGINEERING WAY, MASON OHIO 45040 | 513.336.6701

Firearms: Testing, Design, Analysis and PrototypingStress Outdoor® has a broad range of experience grounded in the design, analysis and testing of civilian and military firearms and firearm sub-systems. This work includes design and analysis involving gas dynamics, mechanisms analysis and the optimization of fire control systems. From shotguns and handguns to aircraft mounted Gatling guns, fully automatic machine guns, suppressors, custom guns and ground based cannons, Stress Outdoor® brings a level of depth to the development of new firearms, or solutions to performance and failure problems on existing product platforms that is unsurpassed. With direct access to three (outdoor) shooting ranges at our immediate disposal, we are able to field test instrumented long guns and hand guns in a safe and controlled environment.

Managing the flow of gas is an important aspect of firearm performance. Compensator design is one area where Stress Outdoor® has applied the latest computer-based simulation tools to predict the functional performance of various design concepts, rather than resort to endless trial and error prototyping with little or no quantitative understanding of the performance differences.

Instrumentation and measurement of 105mm cannon recoil.

Investigating metallurgical and machining differences in AR15 bolts.

Testing of a 1911 on one of SES’s three outdoor ranges.

Initial CAD developed for a youth shotgun.

Gas velocity is calculated as the bullet travels down the barrel of a long rifle. The colored vectors indicate the velocity of the gas flow through the ports in the compensator.

7030 STRESS ENGINEERING WAY, MASON OHIO 45040 | 513.336.6701

SES Outdoor® offers the firearms industry custom design and prototyping services. Prototyping is accomplished via a network of partnerships with local machine shops, tool builders and molders. Our prototyping experience includes:

• Injection Molding

• CNC Machining

• EDM (wire and RAM)

• Rapid prototyping

• Direct Metal Laser Sintering, SLS/SLA

• Investment Casting

Hunting Products: Engineering Testing and Reliability & Safety AssessmentProduct performance and safety is paramount to hunters and outdoor enthusiasts. Stress Outdoor® recently expanded its lab to 25,000 square feet where custom product performance and safety testing can be completed. Our facilities include a state-of-the art polymer and composites laboratory, numerous load frames for mechanical testing and a noise and vibration testing facility for vertical and cross bows, airguns, outdoor clothing and a range of other noise-producing hunting products and devices.

Machining of an AR15 lower. Photo courtesy of Wray Precision, Mason, Ohio.

Prototype of a .380 ACP blow back ‘folding pistol’.Photos courtesy of Covert Arms Ltd.

SES-developed custom semi-anechoic chamber to measure the noise & vibration produced by crossbows, vertical bows & air guns when fired.

If a product uses any plastic/polymer/composite components it is subject to aging related degradation. SES has a state-of-the-art accelerated aging laboratory to evaluate product and product components.

7030 STRESS ENGINEERING WAY, MASON OHIO 45040 | 513.336.6701

‘Turnkey’ Product DevelopmentStress Outdoor® also provides ‘turnkey’ product development services where, working with you as an extension of your staff, we execute the complete product and supply chain development. The primary benefits of our physics-based approach include:

• Elimination of trial and error rework

• Ability to ‘engineer’ the best possible product performance within your constraints

• Reduced development schedule

• Reduced total development cost

• Improved safety

Hunting Products : Engineering Testing and Reliability & Safety Assessment (cont.) Because of the sheer breadth of products in the outdoor market sector, the Stress Outdoor® lab is constructed like a giant erector set to provide maximum testing flexibility. Test systems can be assembled with the appropriate instrumentation to make the measurements specific to the needs of the client.

Strain gage measurements of the local strains developed in the material of the tree stand is manufactured for a variety of real-world static and dynamic loading conditions. The results of this test will be compared to ASTM test guidelines and predictive computer-based models that have been developed to calculate stresses and the margin of safety for the design.

A predictive computational model of the tree stand under test was constructed to predict stress levels developed in the structural members upon loading.

Prototype of a custom designed single shot 38 Special palm pistol. Photo courtesy of Constitution Arms.

Electronic low velocity wind direction sensing product developed by SES Outdoor®.

7030 STRESS ENGINEERING WAY, MASON OHIO 45040 | 513.336.6701

Composites and Polymers for Outdoor ProductsNo matter what segment of the outdoor market you participate in, the use of composites and polymers are significant drivers offering strength and weight advantages to the hunter and outdoor enthusiast and cost advantages to the manufacturer. The Stress Outdoor® staff of polymer scientists and engineers help clients develop new proprietary composites and polymer formulations, develop application specific test methodologies and assess competitiveness relative to other products in the market segment.

Composite Limb Defect DetectionIt would be ideal to discover any defects or weaknesses in a composite limb before a bow is sold to the customer. Finding defects and damage in a composite is limited unless non-destructive Acoustic Emission (AE) techniques are used. Stress Outdoor® has used AE for proof testing of a variety of structures, including composite limbs to detect active failure mechanisms and internal component damage such as matrix crazing, delamination, fiber pullout, and fiber breakage.

Polymer performance or degradation as a result of environmental conditions, processing variables, manufacturing contamination or abuse can be evaluated in the Stress Outdoor® polymer testing facility.

Acoustic emission test set-up used to detect defects in composite vertical bow limb.

About 44 events that located between 0 and 3 inches for a particular test. The Amplitude of these events range from 60 dB to 80 dB and the Absolute Energy from 1,000 aJ to 100,000 aJ. It is believed that these locations correspond to the longitudinal split defect.

7030 STRESS ENGINEERING WAY, MASON OHIO 45040 | 513.336.6701

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7030 STRESS ENGINEERING WAY, MASON OHIO 45040

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ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR OUTDOOR PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS

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