Bison Airlighter model 420 designed by Atus Design LLC

Few years ago Atus Design developed a successful item – Bison Airlighter model 520 for one of its clients, “The Bison Company”, subsidiary of Infora, Inc. Now we proudly announce release of the next generation of Bison Aitlighter – model 420. It is as sturdy and as well design and built as model 520, but it is also somewhat different that its predecessor model Bison 520 and has few features dropped and some others re-designed. For example, it is considerably smaller in size, it still has powerful flame using butane which is still stored in its handle. It also offeres same poerful air blower for spreading that heat. But it does not have USB port and re-chargeable batterisl inside. It rather offers user to use his own standard AAA batteries. There is also no more flashlight. Those of you, BBQ enthusiasts who also love to have beer while cooking meet, do not worry – bottle opener which doubles as a hanging hook is still there.

The Airlighter 420 is the faster, cleaner, and safer way to light BBQs, campfires, wood fireplaces and just about any other fire.  It is also a cooking tool for searing meat, or caramelizing sugars and more.

Click here to watch video of earlier model of Bison Airlighter 520 on YouTUBE

• No more lighter fluid flavor
• Light and stoke fires without moving coals or wood
• Ideal for charcoal briquettes and lump charcoal
• Air-cooled operation keeps the Airlighter cool to the touch
• Unlike chimney starters or typical electric starters, you don’t have to worry about where to store it after use. It remains cool enough to not burn furniture or children.

Features:

• Built-in blower provides 60 minutes of blower use with fresh batteries.  Requires 3x AA batteries.
• Refillable fuel tank provides 7-10 minutes of burn time
• Adjustable flame control helps light fires in any conditions
• Bottle opener / storage hook
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Patented Bison Airlighter Designed By Atus Design LLC

Project was ordered by company Infora, Inc. with offices in Sweden and in New York. Infora was distributing for years product "Looftlighter" which worked from 110 Volts wall electricity. "Looftlighter" was a tool for starting fire in BBQ grills, fireplaces, camfires and so on. The problem was that it was powered through thick cord. For using it outside in a backyard, campsite or hunting or fishing spot one would need to have either electric outlet or powerful generator and electric extension cord. 

Infora asked Atus Design to design and engineer a truly portable tool with refillable butane tank, adjustable angle handle and additional comfort features, such as flashlight, can opener, USB charging port and butane re-filling port. Atus Design was also to design layout of retail box for the product and its accessories.

Initial steps start on paper and result in multitude of hand sketches, study of analogs and product related to the one we are designing. Handheld devices must meet certain ergonomic requirement and be comfortable for as many different types of users as possible - men, women, older and younger adults, people with large and with small hands. Right after hand sketches we go to solid foam sculpting and evaluating various rough shapes and rough features.

Next stage - modeling in 3-D CAD. Here we also create several models for customer's evaluation. Some are printed on 3-D printer in order to give client a chance to have sensory evaluation and better understanding of size and proportions.

Important feature that had to be designed and implemented in Airlighter was child safety. While it had to be reasonable easy for adult to use Airlighter, it had to be designed in a certain way which would have prevented a child to ignite it. So, an additional sliding safety button was introduced, which had to be shifted to one side before main ignition button could activate flames.

Flawless Cosmetic Airbrushing

Patented Cosmetic Airbrush System

This project was initiated by Manhattan-based cosmetic company Temptu, which desperately wanted to expand its operations from professional make-up market into consumer market.

Their questions was simple and very specific: - Can you INVENT a new patentable airbrush, which will be very easy to use, intended to be used by women at home?

Our answer was: - Of course we can! We have done this before and we will do it again. For you.

Another challenge for Temptu was tooling and manufacturing. This company has never been involved in actual production, did not have a single engineer or designer in their staff. They were buying few models of metal airbrushes on "open market" in Asia and selling them in the USA as part of their product assortment. Now they had to actually make their own product.

We took this company to one of our long-time partnering factories in Dongguang, China and set up tooling, production and components sourcing for them. We also supervised all initial pilot production runs, troubleshot all product models and left only when production was running smooth at high speed and quality.

Gennadi Fedorov, founder of Atus Design, had built his very first airbrush, or rather a simple sprayer, when he was 11 years old back in Russia. He was fond of model aviation, was designing, building and flying his own models of Control-Line and Radio-Control airplanes. It wasn't always easy to buy so needed equipment in Soviet Russia in those days. So, the natural decision that Gennadi came to - build it yourself! At the same age Gennadi started attending art school and became very fond og creating some of his artworks using airbrushing technique. By the age of 18 Gennadi designed and built for his personal use five different spraying devices, ranging from very delicate and precise models to larger and more powerful for spraying larger surfaces. He mostly used compressors, which he had taken off old refrigerators.

Work on Temptu airbrush had begun when Gennadi received a phone call from Michael Benjamin, Temptu's president. Michael had a vision for his company to move out of a narrow pro-artists' niche market and expand its operations into consumer market. He knew what he wanted and where he wanted to be, but did not know how to get there. Michael knew that he would need to find the right inventor to do the right job. He started looking through USPTO database and came across patents of 2004 for battery-powered portable airbrush for arts and crafts for kids with Gennadi Fedorov name as inventor who was residing in New Jersey. 

Work started with market and analogs research and revision and initial ideation by creating hand sketches. Next step was creating sculpted foam models for evaluation of ergonomics, shape and overall sizing.

How to use AirPod cosmetic airbrush system.