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.