Magna-Clamp Conceptual Overview

I. The Situation Its 8:23 AM and overcast. You are a machine shop worker who is about to start work for the day on the shops drill press. You are slightly behind on the project and the last crucial piece is in your hand and on the verge of being drilled and finished. You struggle with the presss clamp but the widget is finally sturdy. The press whirs to life as you flip the switch and begin descending the bit down onto your target. If the hole is successful, you then have to keep adjusting the clamp for each new hole. This is an annoying and tedious process at best. On the other hand, there is a chance that the clamp could buckle under the torque of the machine and send the widget flying. If only you had used Magna-Clamp. II. The Problem Sadly this scenario is far more realistic than it should be. Modern clamps just dont have the stability that shop workers and machinists need. Nor are they easy to adjust. This goes beyond the drill press to all aspects of shop machinery. Routers, mills even work benches. Furthermore, many of the more agile, one handed clamps often buckle under the pressure of high-torque applications such as a drill press or a mill. This scenario not only has the potential to ruin a project and damage a machine, but also provides a substantial safety hazard to the operator. III. The Solution Magna-Clamp takes the simplicity and usefulness of a vise but brings it into the 21 century. An electromagnet in the base gives Magna-Clamp a strong hold to any ferrous surface but can also be adjusted and moved with the flick of a switch. Unlike conventional c-clamps and bench vises, Magna-Clamp combines stability, power and ease of use into one simple tool. Magna-Clamps combination of strength and mobility are very useful to any machinist, hobbyist or shop worker that needs a stable working platform when working with hand tools or more complicated machinery. Another advantage that Magna-Clamp has is that many drill presses and mills (among other types of machinery) have iron or steel working platforms. This ensures that Magna-Clamp will have a nearly universal fit to existing machinery. All of this gives Magna-Clamp a large total market. Anyone who works with shop machinery stands to benefit from Magna-Clamp. However, our current target markets are smaller machine shops and hobbyists.
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IV. The Strategy

Currently Magna-Clamp is a staff run project and its inventor, Steve Webb, owns the rights. We are seeking a partner with sufficient resources or a potential licensing agreement with an already established company. This has a high degree of potential because of Magna-Clamps simple design. Not only is it an easily produced product but it can also be made cheaply while retaining quality. Furthermore, Magna-Clamps design allows it to be scaled to many different sizes. This allows it to be further marketed to home hobbyists as well as large-scale industrial operations. Our first prototype will be completed by July 1st, 2012. Once the prototype is complete and perfected, we plan to start working closely with a potential investor or partner to turn Magna-Clamp into a legitimate, marketable product. This includes contacting potential suppliers for magnets and bids for production of the clamp body and base. Once we have our suppliers lined up and ready, production can begin. V. The Competition While it is a great product, Magna-Clamp is not without competition. The conventional bench vise and c-clamp are Magna-Clamps largest competitors. However, our product has several distinctive advantages over them: Bench Vise Unlike a bench vise, Magna-Clamp can be moved around. A bench vise needs to be installed on a workbench and is stationary. It is also a very heavy tool. Magna-Clamps jaw grips just as well but is also mobile. Its electromagnet allows it be used on a ferrous workbench one minute and then relocated to a drill press platform the next. C-Clamp A c-clamp is a very simple tool that is lightweight and generally easy to adjust. However, its small contact points give it severe stability and strength problems. When using high-torque machinery, this can present a serious safety hazard. A c-clamp also needs two parallel sides of a platform for its clamp to work. While this allows it to be clamped to non-ferrous surfaces, these types of platforms and workbenches are often purpose built and arent found everywhere. VI. The Team Seasoned inventor Steve Webb led the development of the product and working underneath him is his team of interns. These interns are coop students supplied by Drexel University in Philadelphia. The interns are broken up into two groups as follows:

Engineering: Christian Stecher is the current intern in charge of CAD renderings and prototype production. He is a hard worker with a keen attention to detail. Mr. Stecher also handles CAD and prototyping for several of Steve Webbs other inventions. He is a sophomore mechanical engineering major at Drexel University. Gregory Hoge is another currently active intern. Greg is in charge of MagnaClamps electronic schematics and is very active in the prototyping process. Greg also interned for the previous semester. He has years of experience in mechanical engineering fields as well as an electronics background. Greg is a junior at Drexel University. An intern from a previous term, Yuanjie Wen is a junior mechanical engineering major at Drexel University. He is responsible for the initial drawings and design of Magna-Clamp. While currently off of his internship and back in school, Mr. Wen is still a very active participant in the design and creation of the Magna-Clamp prototype. John Zhang is our fourth engineering intern shared many of the same responsibilities as Yuanjie Wen. The two of them worked very closely with Steve Webb when Magna-Clamp was still in the brainstorming process. Similar to Mr. Wen, Mr. Zhang is also still an active member of the team despite his time in classes.

Business: Erik Wallace is the current intern responsible for Magna-Clamps business dealings. This ranges from administrative tasks to financial management. He is also active in several of Mr. Webbs other projects and is in charge of theirs as well as Magna-Clamps online presence. Mr. Wallace is a sophomore business administration major at Drexel University. VII. The Financials Being an individual product instead of an incorporated entity, Magna-Clamp has a different set of financial obligations. However, these have still been addressed and are as follows: Administrative and Legal: Magna-Clamp currently has a provisional patent. This provides exactly one year from the filing date (April 2012) to file a Utility Patent Application. This patent application costs $2,900.00 and is currently awaiting prototype production and possible investment.

Prototype:

Magna-Clamps prototype body is made using aluminum blocks and an extrusion method. The aluminum is sourced from McMaster-Carr, a private, industrial supply company. Two sizes of aluminum are being purchased for the first prototype; the 1.5x4x12 block costs $52.59 and the 3x4x12 block costs $93.65. The electronics housed in the body (such as: power jack, resistors, toggle switch and led) have a total of $5.07 per clamp for the initial prototype run. For the initial prototype, the magnets are sourced from APW Company and cost $56.01 each The bottom line for the prototype is $213.37 for initial prototype production. This figure only reflects part costs and does not include machinery time. Tooling Cost: The quoted tooling cost for Magna-Clamp is $25,000. Production Cost: The quoted production cost for Magna-Clamp is $28.00 per clamp at a quantity of 100 clamps. Once the prototype phase is complete, we will send a final set of production specifications to the possible suppliers in a preliminary bidding process. This will allow us to seek out the most efficient (both cost and time based) vendors for production. Current bids have shown to be in the range of $22.00 per clamp at a quantity of 1000 clamps. This bid reflects the 4 jaw model. A China based manufacturing company has also been sourced for a production level quantity of magnets. Yueqing Zhengyong Electrical Co. Ltd has quoted us a price of $1,362.00 for a shipment of 100 magnets. (This price includes FOB shipping to Philadelphia, PA) These 100 magnets will be used in the initial production run. Furthermore this company is also able to scale our order up to 10,000 units a shipment with a maximum turnaround time of 15 days. Sales: The retail price is expected to be between $75.00 and $89.00 depending on the results of our direct market research. This is based on the price of competition clamps without electromagnets and first round research inquiring desirability from those in related fields.