Company: Bowhead Corp

Industry: Adaptive Sports Equipment

Company Overview: Bowhead Corp designs and manufactures adaptive sports equipment that empowers individuals with mobility challenges to spend more time outdoors. Their flagship product, the Bowhead Reach, is a highly customizable, all-terrain adaptive e-bike that combines cutting-edge engineering with user-centric design to enable outdoor exploration for riders of all abilities.

The Challenge

The Challange

Bowhead Corp’s mission to create the Bowhead Reach came with unique hurdles. The team needed to balance innovative design with practical manufacturing processes while addressing the diverse needs of their target audience. Their product had to offer high levels of customization for riders with varying mobility requirements, all while maintaining safety, durability, and usability in extreme outdoor environments. Scaling production efficiently without compromising quality added another layer of complexity to their project.

Accessibility: The design had to ensure exceptional reliability and usability for individuals with disabilities across rugged terrains.
Innovation: Developing a product that combined elements of a mountain bike, and an all-terrain vehicle required cutting-edge design capabilities.
Speed to Market: Tight timelines required rapid prototyping and efficient design workflows to bring the Bowhead Reach to market swiftly.

The Solution

Bowhead Corp. utilized SOLIDWORKS for Entrepreneurs, including design, simulation, communication, and visualization tools, to develop and manufacture the Bowhead Reach e-powered bike. They integrated SOLIDWORKS with Markforged carbon-fiber 3D printers to streamline the design and prototyping process.

SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD: Enabled precise design and modeling of complex assemblies, allowing Bowhead to seamlessly merge mountain bike and ATV features.
SOLIDWORKS Simulation: Provided tools to digitally test and validate the performance of parts and assemblies under rugged conditions before physical production.
Markforged 3D Printers: Combined with SOLIDWORKS to rapidly prototype lightweight, durable carbon-fiber components, significantly reducing development time and cost.

By leveraging these specific tools, Bowhead Corp. accelerated their product development cycle, ensured design reliability, and successfully launched the Bowhead Reach a full year ahead of schedule.

“By designing parts and assemblies in SOLIDWORKS, 3D printing them, and then trying them out, we were able to iterate very quickly and launch the Reach a year ahead of schedule. We knew that we had something good, and our enthusiasm coupled with the efficiency of our design tools helped us to advance our design faster and reduce prototyping requirements on the back end.”

— Will Gill, Co-founder and Director of Research and Development

The Result

Cut development cycle by a full year
Reduced number of prototyping cycles required
Leveraged 3D printing for development, prototyping and production
Improved access to outdoors for people with disabilities

By harnessing the power of SOLIDWORKS and integrating advanced 3D printing capabilities, Bowhead Corp. enhanced their ability to innovate. The streamlined workflows not only improved efficiency but also allowed them to stay agile in responding to customer needs, ultimately delivering a groundbreaking adaptive mobility solution.

Final Thoughts

Bowhead Corp’s innovative approach to designing their off-road adaptive bicycles demonstrates the transformative power of SOLIDWORKS in driving accessibility and performance. By leveraging SOLIDWORKS’ robust 3D CAD and simulation tools, the team efficiently optimized their designs for strength, durability, and user comfort, ensuring a high-quality product for adaptive riders. With streamlined workflows and enhanced collaboration enabled by the software, Bowhead Corp not only accelerated their development process but also brought their mission to life—empowering riders to conquer rugged terrains with confidence and freedom.

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