Custom yacht parts
3d cad services
industrial design
(reverse) Engineering
factory automation
Parts gripper for an 8+8 injection stack mold with pneumatically operated gripper plates for fast extraction cycles.
For each nest of four products, a sprue is also removed by a separate gripper. During ejection, the products may fall between the time the product is ejected from the die and the grippers are closed. This is prevented by pressing the products against rubber bellows suction cups during ejection.
The gripper arms are rigid and lightweight, built in aluminum to remain within the robot's payload.
Fully automated production machine for manufacturing floXact air speed measuring probes.
After reading the order, the machine first calculates the most efficient way to cut the various lengths needed for the order from the warehouse lengths. There are a large number of standard lengths available, ranging from 100 to 1200 mm in length, and the machine is flexible enough to handle any size within this range, with increments of 1 mm.
Fully automatic production from Excel order. User interface with order information and time-to-go clock. Three different materials can be processed. Automatic selection and gripper exchange. Customized oil lubrication and automatic chip extraction during processing. After all processing is completed, the final product is placed on a movable production table.
Injection mold for producing (recycled) plastic mast tiles for street paving. The mold is equipped with interchangeable cores to produce tiles for three different sizes of masts.
XLBP conveyor belts are equipped with rollers on the entire surface. These machines are used to assemble these conveyor belts from various components.
The assembly machine takes a basic module and adds two axles with beads, which are then secured by ultrasonically welding plastic clips onto them. The individual products are fed on a conveyor belt and picked up by a robot arm with an encoder and vision camera.
Another machine is designed as a universal assembly cell. By designing the product-specific tools as separate modules, it is easy to switch the tooling and assemble a completely different product.
The semi-automatic machine is designed for drilling measuring ports in floXact air velocity meters. The machine is suitable for three types of profiles.
After entering the length and type, the measuring port positions are calculated using the Log-Tchebecheff method and then drilled accurately into position.
The profiles are manually cut to length in advance and placed in the machine. With the push of a button, all measuring ports are drilled on both sides of the profile. After each drilling operation, the profile is rotated around its length axis.
This steering system uses the wind to automatically adjust the course of the boat based on the wind direction. Ideal for long trips because it is purely mechanical and therefore does not consume electricity.
Based on an existing design with some modifications and improvements, the design has been adapted to enable tube laser and sheet metal production. It is constructed from seawater-resistant aluminum, stainless steel (316L), and plastic sliding bearings. The vane blade is infinitely adjustable in height. By sliding the blade up, sensitivity increases in light winds. The torque then increases, and the balance of the blade changes, making it easier to overturn.
The wind vane operates silently, uses no power, and has been proven on a test route of over 22,000 nautical miles from Leiden via France, Spain, Morocco, the Canary Islands, French Guiana, Suriname, the Caribbean Sea, Colombia, Panama, French Polynesia, the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii, and Alaska to Vancouver Island, Canada.
Reinforced fittings in the mast profile to connect the rigging. These custom tanks were necessary because the customer wanted to equip the existing mast with rigging other than the standard.
An easy-to-install and remove stainless steel bowsprit for a halfwinder or gennaker. The bowsprit is attached to the Rocna anchor bracket and secured to the anchor fitting with a single eye bolt. The same eye bolt also secures the anchor directly to the bow.
Replacement parts for Enkes winches made of stainless steel (316). The original aluminum parts were heavily corroded causing them to run poorly. With the new parts, the winches can last for years and continue to run smoothly.
An end piece for a mainsheet traveler. Since this was no longer available, we had a new one 3D printed in plastic.
Completely replaced the switch panel because the switches had become unsafe and unreliable due to aging. I designed and installed a new panel, leaving out unused old switches and neatly arranging the new functions in a row.
Do you need custom parts for your boat? I can help by creating a technical drawing and arranging for the part to be made through my extensive network of manufacturers and suppliers.
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Heavy-duty aluminum hinges for the hatches of the arctic expedition sailing vessel 'Snowleopard'. The hinge boxes are welded into the deck. The parts are milled from Aluminum 3.3547 due to its good machining and welding properties as well as its resistance to seawater. The stainless steel hinge pin is placed in plastic bearings to prevent galvanic corrosion.
This pin feed block is part of a chain assembler. The block aligns pins in the correct orientation to be punched into a chain.
The block comes in 3 variants, which allows the chain assembler to be converted for making different types of chains.
The previous pin feed system was large, unreliable, prone to malfunctions, and converting it took 2 hours. Now, it is as small as a hand, fault-free, and conversion takes only 2 minutes."
As a child, I was already fascinated by technology. I would take apart everything I came across and was always making things. When I was 17, I went to the Leiden Instrument Makers School. I loved precision engineering and felt completely at home in the inventor's atmosphere. After school, I worked as a model maker for a few years, making molds, prototypes, scale models, and maquettes. However, I was more interested in technology and therefore started working for a packaging manufacturer as a machine designer and builder.
After that, I spent over twenty years designing and building machines and production automation for various companies, especially in the plastic processing industry. First in the packaging industry: thin-walled injection molding with In-Mold Labeling (IML) machines. I call it the "Formula 1" of injection molding. Then, for ten more years, I worked as an automation engineer, responsible for the automatic assembly of plastic chain and modular conveyor belt systems. Here, I gained a lot of experience with 6-axis industrial robots, product feeding through vibratory drums, vision and 3D vision, ultrasonic welding, and laser engraving.
Through this years-long experience in machine and equipment construction in the manufacturing industry, I have learned to design and build robust machines with a user-friendly operator interface and good maintenance accessibility. And of course, reliable machines that are not prone to malfunctions. Due to extensive hands-on experience in dynamic production environments with machine operators, maintenance personnel, and the supply of various semi-finished products, I am able to prevent most common production disruptions already in the design phase.
In 2018, my wife and I decided to radically change course. I quit my job, and after selling our house and all our belongings, we set sail on our sailboat. After 4 years, two oceans, 25,000 nautical miles, 16 countries, more than 50 islands, and a lot of water, I started this company, and since then, I have primarily been working from our sailboat 'Joy'.