Challenge:
Despite tightened manufacturing standards, covered springs and frames, and safety net enclosures, some 90,000 children are still injured on traditional trampolines every year in the United States alone. Still, the equipment is becoming increasingly popular worldwide.
Solution:
Engineers at Matrix Applied Computing saw an opportunity to optimize and improve the cleat component on the Springfree™ Trampoline. They used Abaqus FEA to test the trampoline’s ultimate load capability, then leveraged the Abaqus Topology Optimization Modeling (ATOM) tool to automatically explore the optimal cleat geometry.
Benefits:
Matrix was able to improve the strength of the trampoline’s cleat design to provide extra support where needed and distribute the stress more evenly—all while using less material to save on manufacturing costs.
Ask a kid if they like trampolines and their eyes are sure to light up with joy. But ask some parents and you may get an entirely different response. Despite tightened manufacturing standards, covered springs and frames, and safety net enclosures, some 90,000 children are still injured on traditional trampolines every year in the United States alone. Still, the equipment is becoming increasingly popular worldwide.
Dr. Keith Alexander, an associate professor of engineering at Canterbury University, New Zealand, felt there had to be a safer way to enjoy the trampoline. “I always believed that, as an engineer, I should be doing things that benefit people,” he says. When his wife nixed his plans to buy a conventional trampoline for his daughter Katie out of safety concerns, he decided to build a better one. He began by working in his garage, later moving his research to the University where help from his students plus government and private grants kept the momentum going.
Analyzing “reams of data,” Alexander determined that there were three main impact zones in the classic trampoline design (which dates to the 1930s) that needed to be arranged so the user wouldn’t impact them: the springs connecting the bounce mat to the frame, the metal frame itself and, of course, the ground.
Many prototypes later (starting from 1989) Alexander arrived at his final, innovative solution: move the frame below the jumping surface, create a soft edge to the mat, and surround the whole thing with tensioned, ultraviolet-resistant netting that would bounce users back towards the center if they went off-kilter. The result was the Springfree™ Trampoline, first produced in 2003 and currently selling at a rate of some 40,000 per year around the globe.
So if trampolines are your thing, the Springfree would certainly make a safer, healthy, eye-catching addition to the backyard. Yet it’s what you don’t see that’s most unique: the high-tech cleats under the mat’s edge—60 or more per trampoline, depending on the model. Made from fiberglass-reinforced polypropylene and shaped like a wide letter ‘T,’ these have a rounded, midline socket into which the balled top of each fiberglass support rod fits. The lower ends of the rods connect to the metal base of the trampoline.
Want to learn more?
Discover how Matrix Applied Computing helps Springfree optimize the backyard trampoline.
