Story of the Zip Pen

The business of rapid prototyping is very competitive, fast-paced, and at times somewhat impersonal.  From mainframe server panels to pet toys, hundreds of new designs and part files cross our desks and emails each week.  Customers can range from very high profile engineering managers for major corporations, to the single dreamer, the “little guy” with just an idea, and everyone in between.  As rapid prototypers, many times we don’t even know what the products are designed for, let alone the people who are working on the designs themselves.

This reality of our market made a recent lunch with Joe Lutgen, quite enjoyable.  Joe is Vice President of CoolPen LLC, who in addition to helping bring to market a real life product, is a very down-to-earth guy.  The CoolPen story starts with the founder of CoolPen LLC, Ralph Lagergren, who first started a company to design a revolutionary new Combine for the agriculture industry during the 90’s.  After college Joe signed on and helped with the Bi-Rotor combine project, which succeeded and was eventually sold to John Deere.  This success launched Ralph into three separate ventures.

One of the new ventures is a children’s educational television program.  This innovative award-winning program teaches children about all aspects of music in a fun and educational way.  Another is a drywall-finishing tool, which automates the application of mud and tape to significantly reduce the labor required to finish drywall.  The third is the Z-writer, which we’ve come to know as the Zip pen, and it’s been our pleasure at Protogenic to watch this idea come to life…

The idea started about 7 years ago, when the inventor of the drywall machine, Ed O’Mara, had another idea for a pen that you would stick on the end of your finger like a thimble.  When working with blueprints and drawings, he would always misplace or lose his pen and knew there had to be a better solution. So he presented his idea to Ralph, but was immediately rebuffed regarding placement of the ink, and being able to still use the fingertip for other activities.  Ralph told him maybe it would work if he had a strap on the pen that got it off the end of the finger. So a few weeks later, Ed proposed an improved idea- a short pen attached to the finger by a piece of Velcro.  This second prototype was somewhat cumbersome.  A little pen attached to one’s pointer finger with Velcro proved uncomfortable, and the design didn’t provide for very ergonomic writing either.  Then by pure accident Ralph slipped the pen onto his middle finger, bent it around a little, and jotted down a note.  He then visualized a computer keyboard and knew with some design changes the first multitasking pen was born.

Shortly thereafter a pen design was created, and a multi-cavity injection mold was made to produce them.  But although the features in the production parts were just as they were designed, there was still something in the early production models that didn’t quite “feel right.”  So Ralph halted production and stopped his sales and marketing efforts, and put the Zwriter project on the shelf. 

Then one day Joe called looking to help on the Zwriter.  He had been using one of the early pens in his car for several years, and always believed that it could “be big” if done right. Joe stepped up and was given the task to take this early design, and find a way to make it fit, feel, and function like they knew it should.

Using Pro/Engineer, Joe began manipulating the design, creating 3D CAD files for each revision. When his first concept was completed, he sent off for an SLA at Protogenic. After receiving his first SLA, Joe knew two things for certain: one, his current design needed some additional attention and two, using SLA technology to get quick prototypes was the best method to design this product, and Protogenic soon became his rapid prototyper of choice.  An hour or so after emailing his file to Protogenic, Joe would receive a quote for a Stereolithography model.  He recalled, “Protogenic became my “partner” during the development of the Zip Pen, because without their efficiency I would have missed many important deadlines.  Sometimes I would receive prototypes overnight and at the most 2 days.  They were the most cost effective solution for the number of iterations I knew I would have to make to solve the problems associated with the Zip Pen.” 

Over the course of the next year, Joe worked on at least 40 subsequent revisions, getting 1 or 2 SLA’s each time, each new one containing a subtle design change and improvement from the last.  He also worked with local designer Eric Zeitlin, of Functionuity, who helped with the industrial design of the project, making sure the ergonomics of the pen was just right.  Eric also helped with prototypes of the pen, knowing the best way to prove out a design is through the use of solid models.

What they learned from the solid models was that the human hand is very sensitive, and as they altered the outer diameter of the pen by .030”, or adjusted the angle of the pen by 1 or 2 degrees, significant differences in comfort and performance were observed.  Multiple SLA’s from the same CAD file enabled Joe to also FedEx copies of the latest design to Ralph across the country, so the two of them could collaborate with real, functional models the next day. 

Joe and Ralph soon grew to appreciate the fast turn-around of prototypes from Protogenic, and enjoyed the outstanding service that came with each order.  As the design neared its final revision, Protogenic created silicone RTV molds and supplied them with multiple urethane castings, so they could examine various color combinations, textures, and material properties.  Also, they were able to share these prototypes with friends, family members, and small impromptu focus groups, to solicit feedback for further development work. 

Additional benefits from the rapid prototypes were realized on the production end.  When Joe took one of the first SLA’s to the production toolmaker, he quickly realized how difficult the design would be to produce and was offered suggestions on how to make his design to be more manufacturable.  One of the greatest benefits to prototyping is being able to work out tooling issues before any real tooling takes place, and this was a tremendous reality on this project.  By separating the finger band from the main body of the part, and using a separate metal band in its place, the tool savings was dramatic, more than offsetting the cost of the metal band. 

Along with rapid prototyping, the transition to injection molding, and setting up assembly and packaging, one of the greatest lessons learned for Joe in this project is that getting a product to market involves lots of networking and sometimes plain old luck.  Joe also realizes now more than ever that the saying, “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door” isn’t always true.  Without the right team a project goes nowhere.  Jim Wilson, CoolPen CEO who lives in Naperville, IL pulled the business together and set up overseas manufacturing as well as structuring the development of future products.  Through networking, Jim and Ralph met and formed a joint venture with IdeaStream Consumer Products, a marketing firm with an incredible background in selling to the office product retail giants. IdeaStream now has the Zip pen on store shelves all across the country.

Future Zip Pen ideas include a “Flip Pen” that is placed out of the way over the back of your hand, a “Flex Pen” that allows the user to further manipulate the pen itself for improved comfort, and a “Spin Pen” that will spin 180° to toggle between a ballpoint pen and PDA stylus, or a pencil and eraser.  Knowing that rapid prototyping is essential in streamlining future development work, Joe is eager to take on these new projects.  As for the first Zip Pen, sales are off to a great start, and the future looks bright for Cool Pen LLC and IdeaStream.  Still not a believer?  Try a Zip Pen for yourself, and see how you like it.  You can find them on store shelves at Office Depot, Office Max, Staples, and at Quill.com.    Below are a few pictures of the Zip pens, some of which were part of the development process.  Click on any image to view a larger image, then use your browswer's back button to come back.

To learn more about Cool Pen and its products, you can visit their website www.zippen.com/.