New Member

[Ed.Murphy@Dimide.com]

Hello,
Saw that there was a posting on our new clamps and would like to answer any questions that anyone has about our tools.
Ed Murphy

[Jon]

Hi Ed - welcome to HomemadeTools.net

Yes, we saw that Dimide clamp; looks very interesting. We like this video:

I have a question or two. First of all - when is the Dimide clamp scheduled for sale to the public?

More broadly, what are some of the challenges that you faced not just building a tool, but bringing it to market?

[Ed.Murphy@Dimide.com]

Hi Ed - welcome to HomemadeTools.net

Yes, we saw that Dimide clamp; looks very interesting. We like this video:

I have a question or two. First of all - when is the Dimide clamp scheduled for sale to the public?

More broadly, what are some of the challenges that you faced not just building a tool, but bringing it to market?

Hello Jon,
We are very excited that we will begin shipping products in June. We will be selling through the storefront of our website.

As far as challenges, the design started as an offshoot of a clamp that Mike Costen, the company founder, created for a personal project. Mike is an aerospace structural engineer and once he got started on this he realized that there was an opportunity to provide a clamp that could take advantage of being driven by an impact wrench. He started putting together the geometry and ran through structural optimizations to create a clamp that would meet the criteria that he had initially decided on. A number of prototype units were produced and put through practical daily use in fabricating shops. The prototypes were made using standard machining fabrication which we realized would not deliver the results that we were expecting with the fabricating techniques that we were planning on using but it gave us a benchmark to compare the FEM results with empirical performance. We also took feedback from the fabricators that were putting them through the paces and once Mike was satisfied with the results the design was finalized and production was begun.
The advantage that a clamp that has been designed to be driven with an impact wrench is the decreased time and reduced effort required to fixture parts with clamp loads exceeding 7000lbs. There are clamps that are marketed as "high speed" but these are typically clamps that allow the jaws to be slid up to the point where the load begins and then you can apply the clamp force with a t-handle or a wrench. Our clamps allow you to drive the clamp with an impact wrench from the start resulting in a high speed throughout the process, not just when there is no load.
There are a few articles that have been written on the clamps that can provide some additional information from an outside source...
Reimagining the C-clamp - The Fabricator
C-clamp compatible with impact wrenches - The Fabricator
FFJournal.net | A faster and stronger clamp
As far as challenges of bringing the products to market, we introduced our clamps at FabTech 2016 and received a solid interest in them. People were ready to purchase them at our booth. Unfortunately we weren't in production at that time. We tried using Kickstarter as a means of raising the funding, but missed our goal. We then started looking at private equity sources and were able to find investors that were enthusiastic to help to bring these products to market.
As I had mentioned we will begin delivering products this June and are looking forward to a busy summer and in to the future with additional products.