Goalie Glove

Addidas: "objet Geometries Helped Changed the Way We Work"

"Objet Geometries helped change

the way we work"

For four years, adidas-Salomon AG has been progressing toward a streamlined digital process for sharing data among all its business units. Partnering up with Objet Geometries RP systems is helping to move adidas-Salomon AG closer to this goal.

For adidas-Salomon AG, among the top athletic footwear manufacturers worldwide, product enhancement and timely product introductions are crucial to its success. Technology is given a priority, and the company's vision for more than

four years has been to implement a complete digital process that will enable it to create and share threedimensional data back and forth from corporate headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany and in the Portland, Oregon facility, to all its corporate units and contract factories in Asia.

Over the last four years, the periodic addition of new hardware and software has helped adidas-Salomon AG step closer to realizing this vision. The latest piece added to the puzzle has been the implementation of Objet Geometries’ pioneering Polyjet™ inkjet technology for rapid-

prototyping (RP) physical models from STL files.

Adidas-Salomon AG’s satisfaction with Objet’s high- quality models has led the company to choose Objet Geometries as its RP business partner. Since the beginning of 2002, the Polyjet inkjet technology has been used extensively in both headquarters.

Now, adidas-Salomon AG’ contract Asia factories are beginning to purchase and install the machines to help revolutionize the company’s Asia-based development and production processes.

How it all started adidas-Salomon AG is no stranger to RP. The 80-year-old company started using digital models with Rhino modeling software and a concept modeler RP system in 1998. The initial RP models were primarily used for design

verification. Says adidas-Salomon AG’s Vice President-Product Creation Technologies Gary Pitman: ”Our research told us that having a higher-quality RP model would allow us to influence more than just the design verification phase;

we felt we could save significant time and money by using the RP models as the master when vacuum-casting parts for development review and eventually, for production tooling.”

That's when adidas-Salomon AG turned to Objet Geometries, inventors of Polyjet, which uses a three dimensional inkjet technique. A ”print” head of 1536 nozzles builds models layer on layer, jetting Objet’s FullCure™ photopolymer resin material, which hardens immediately when exposed to UV light. This process produces a highly accurate, smooth finish, without any extra finishing, as usually required by other technologies. If required, users can jet a second, gellike support material for more complicated models, easily removed by water jet or by hand.

The Future ”Installing a machine for both headquarters has put us at a higher level. Objet’s helped change the way we work,”

Pitman states. ”Our designers and engineers need to hold and feel the model in their hands; it’s always important, and with Objet, it’s almost like having a 3D fax capability.” Pitman says that as part of the new cooperation, Objet is already beginning to install its systems in Asian supplier locations, ”and that is what we are focusing on now. This will give us the ability to collaborate with each factory in Asia on specific

product needs. It should further reduce time for development, commercialization and production, enable us to be closer to the market, and will reduce travel time, too.” Finally, adidas-Salomon AG and Objet are searching for ways to apply Objet’s technology in other product business units, such as the Accessories and Gear division, which produces items like balls (soccer, rugby, basketball), soccer shin guards, goalie gloves, water bottles, swimming goggles, jump ropes and small hand weights.

Continued Support For the partnership to be a success, adidas-Salomon AG knew that continued support was a priority. “An RP system is only as good as its after-sale support,” says Pitman. "I

wouldn’t be pushing Objet if I didn't feel we’ve had good technical support." He says that anytime there's an issue, a technical support technician comes to service the machine, within a day. ”The training is very high; our own technicians can solve a lot of issues by themselves. We also like the fact that Objet stores extra parts on site so that we don't have to wait.”

”We consider our cooperation with adidas-Salomon AG to be a great opportunity for both of us,” says Objet Geometries’

Vice President-Business Development Dror Danai. ”We’re excited about the applications adidas-Salomon AG is using Objet for, and we intend to work closely with the company so that it can achieve all its design and production

workflow goals.”

Objet Geometries Ltd. is a relatively young company, with headquarters in the Weizmann Science Park in Rehovot, Israel, and subsidiaries in Belgium and in the US. The company just began sales in Q4 2001, marketing dozens of its Objet RP systems worldwide. It has captured the interest of industries requiring

models in the automotive, footwear, aerospace, consumer goods, toys and recreational arenas – and even in medical applications.

Objet’s RP system was used for an unusual and lifesaving event: planning the successful separation of the famous Guatemalan Quiej-Alvarez twins – who were joined at the head. The QuadraTempo’s highly detailed, highly accurate

models of the twins’ blood vessels was used so that surgeons could plan how to reroute the maze of veins and reroute the twins’ blood supply. Because blood vessels were crisscrossed, tracking them using stadard, two-dimensional x-rays would have been impossible. For more details about this procedure, please visit our website.

For more information about adidas-Salomon AG, please visit the website:

http://www.adidas.de

For more information about Objet Geometries, please visit the website: http://www.2objet.com

About the Author

Objet Geometries Ltd is a 3D Printing pioneer in photopolymer jetting, develops, manufactures and globally markets (16 microns ultra-thin-layer high-resolution rapid prototyping) 3D Printers, which produce 3D models featuring ultra smooth surfaces and very fine details.

Be Prepared: Take Care of your Goalkeeper Gloves

Sizing and Caring for Goalkeeper Gloves

Goalkeepers are key players on a team. Because you are the anchor of defense, you want to ensure that you are the most ready. To be prepared, you need to take care of your gloves so that they fit correctly and work well when it comes time for a match.

Help with Properly Sizing Goalie Gloves

1. Of course, every goalkeeper's hand is different, so this is not an exact science. Size variations are slight, but can vary based on manufacturer as well as Junior and Adult number sizes, and price point. Size 7 is difficult because merchandisers offer a Junior 7 and a Senior 7.

* Note: Goalkeeping gloves should be a little bigger than the actual hand size. The fingers of a goalie should not bunch up to the tip of the glove nor should they be so free as to slip around all over, inside the glove. Usually more than 1/4" to 1/2" past your fingertip is enough or the length of your thumbnail, if you don't have a ruler available.

* Here are several suggestions for more accurately estimating size. You can try on a pair at a soccer store, but if there isn't one near you, here are two ways to figure out what size is right.

First Suggestion: Take the measurement around the widest section of the palm, not including the thumb. Then take this measurement to the next inch. Your glove size is usually 1 inch more.

Second Suggestion: Measure how long the hand is from the top of the middle finger to the big surface of the thumb in the location that the keeper's thumb joins to the wrist. Go to the next highest inch, rounding up. Then put an extra 1 inch to the measurement to find your glove size. For example, a hand measurement of 7.5" will be rounded up to 8" and then 1" is added to that sum to determine a glove size; 7.5" hand equals 9" glove.

2. Remember to take the measurement of each hand and buy the larger size. When finding the right size for a keeper's gloves, the fingers shouldn't reach less than ¼ inch to ½ inch from the glove's top. You should get approximately the same measurement both times for each hand.

3. Be familiar with these Glove Sizes:

* Jr. Size 4 or 5 fits a small goalkeeper/size YS goalkeeper apparel. For 7-9 year olds. 4'6" to 4'8" in height fits a size 5.
* Jr. Size 6 or 7 are good for youth keepers of medium or larger sizes. For 10 to 12 year olds. Measurements being 4'10" (size 6) to 5'0" (size 7).
* Size 7 (Adult) - A tiny adult or a big youth keeper. 5'2" to 5'4" in Height
* Size 8 fits a smaller or medium adult goalkeeper. 5'4" to 5'7" in Height
* Size 9 fits a medium sized adult goalkeeper. 5'8" to 5'10" in Height
* Size 10 fits medium to large size adult goalkeepers.
* Size 11 fits a large adult keeper those height is 5'10 to 6'1".
* Size 12 fits a large keeper with a height of about 6'2". 6'4" or so, a goalkeeper with extra large hand size.

About the Author

Zapkam are a manufacturer of professional quality

goalkeeper gloves,

goalkeeper equipment and

football kit