The members of the ennomotive community bring innovation to the client companies faster and better than anybody. For that reason, we want you to get to know the best of the best. For this post, the Smiljanic brothers, Petar and Milutin, answer a few questions about their experience in one of the latest challenges, the Tramway Rail Design challenge. The main goal of this challenge was to find a new anchor system for the tramway rails that eliminated the vibration and noise and was easy to install and replace.
You might remember Petar from previous posts since he has already won 2 challenges, the Battery Theft Prevention challenge and the Craft Manufacturing of Carbon Tubes challenge.
Enjoy the interview!
My brother Petar and I worked together on the ennomotive challenges. He is a leader and an inexhaustible source of energy and ideas. The most important part is the phase of brainstorming when have to reach the perfect mix of experience and new ideas.
Did you have any experience in this kind of challenges? Have you solved a similar challenge in the past?
Actually, we do have a lot of experience with tramway rails. In 1998 we used to do examinations of physical characteristics, metallography, material characteristics and material structure of the tramway rails. Examinations were conducted in a material examinations laboratory on Mechanical Faculty of Belgrade University, where Petar used to work as a Science professor. The materials we suggested for this particular challenge came from a different experience. From previous work, we had the opportunity to familiarize ourselves with different kinds of composed and polyurethane materials.
How did you come up with this solution? What was your inspiration?
Knowing the rails system and other elastic materials we started with criticisms of present tramway rails technology. Our solution is a modern and economic approach to the old system with adoptions and guides requested by investor and with a small amount of engineering magic.
Why did you decide to compete? What are your motivations?
Besides financial benefit, our motivation was in competition challenge and in engineering spirit. As my friend engineer said: Why we doing it and standing against all problems – because we want it to see how it works. There is a specific satisfaction when your efforts are rewarded with the proper function of your materialized idea.
The Smiljanic brothers have proven to have talent, creativity and an inspiring drive to innovate and solve engineering challenges. Do you?
