i ​DON'T STOP ME NOW​ i

Task One: Identify two companies and one product produced by each company that directly relate to the NCT technical application your team has selected. 

 

Everyday people around the world are looking for a way to save energy or make their lives easier with some sort of energy efficient device. This can be done in a variety of ways, such as LED light bulbs or an eco-friendly vehicle. One company that assists people with not only energy efficiency, but with exercise is ERB, “Energy Return Bicycle”. This company created a bicycle with a unique frame that allows energy to be stored and released with every pedal stroke. This relates to the NCT technical application because, like the product of the company, our design was created to recycle energy, where the energy derived from the brakes is turned into a power source. This power source would be capable of charging small electrical devices. Also, the concept of regenerative breaking is one of the numerous ideas that scientists have come up with to help reduce energy waste. Kinetic Power LLC is a company that has come up with new breakthrough regenerative braking technology called Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS). This system has been applied to trains and large vehicles. It collects 90% of the energy that goes into breaking, to be applied to relaunch equipment. The system contributes to the reduction of fuel consumption in much of the worlds heavy machinery. Like the NCT technical application, KERS collects the wasted energy produced when applying the breaks to then utilize later, in the same way our product is storing energy produced when breaking to power small devices.

 

Task Two: Identify one professional association or trade organization associated with the products your team identified. Include: its name, description of its mission, and number of people/companies involved  

 

A professional association associated with the product our team identified would be Adventure Cycling Association. The mission of Adventure Cycling is to “inspire and empower people to travel by bicycle”. This perfectly associates with the product our team has identified since our plan is to turn the heat energy wasted during cycling into electrical energy which will enhance the riders travel. Adventure Cycling has 47,000 members and has been “the premier bicycle-travel organization in North America” for over 35 years.

 

http://www.adventurecycling.org/about-us/

 

Task Three: Propose and describe a new product or new process based on your team's NCT technical application.

 

Our team chose to address the NCT of renewable energy. We proposed a bike to be engineered that will be able to take the kinetic energy that is wasted when braking either downhill or on a flat surface, and stores the kinetic energy as rotational kinetic energy making it an efficient process. The kinetic energy produced by this process would then power a small generator connected to the back of the bike that would serve as a minimal outlet for non-energy consuming devices such as when charging a phone or powering a small speaker. This would not only be useful in powering the device at no cost, but it would utilize the wasted kinetic energy for something useful.

 

Task Four: Via the Internet, locate a company that might be able to manufacture your team’s proposed product. Send the company an e-mail asking that someone in the company evaluate the product your team proposed. Provide on your website the e-mail request you sent, the names of manufacturers to whom you sent the request and include any responses received.

We sent an email to a company called Associated Renewable, Inc. The email address of this company is info@associatedrenewable.com
The email went as follows:

Hello, 

 

Thank you for your time to read this. 

 

My name is Madelaine Smith, and my team and I have been working on a project concerning 

 

renewable clean energy. The application of regenerative breaks as a source of clean energy 

 

has already been utilized in the automobile industry. However my team believes that this field 

 

should be expanded into the area of bikes as well. Our product, Don't Stop Me Now, attempts to 

 

tap this potential for clean energy production in the bike market. Our product works by 

 

consuming the kinetic energy that is lost as frictional heat while braking and saving it as 

 

potential energy for later use. 

 

For more information regarding our product please visit our website at, 

 

http://dmitriy8787.wix.com/dont-stop-me-now

 

Sincerely, 

 

Madelaine Smith



No response was given by the company.