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 Pucks
and what we mean by "Sustainable American Design and
Manufacturing"
Many people and organizations are happy to assume the
title of "designer". Graphic designer, product designer,
web designer, and so on. Just about anybody can call themselves
a designer. Typically the title of "designer" means
very little. The actual work performed often demonstrates
a very narrow vision of what should be a much larger responsibility.
What we all share in common as designers is a desire to create,
so the story goes. Maybe it is to make a beautiful thing.
Maybe it is to make something that makes living easier or
more fun. Maybe it is just to make a profit.
In its grandest form, design should be about the intent,
dedication and stewardship surrounding the designed object.
In designing something, you should have deliberate intentions
for its creation, its use and its disposal. Conscious intent
is what separates true designers from those who are merely
pulling endpoints, pushing pixels, manipulating wire frame
models, running FEA tests on a computer, sending files overseas,
waiting for prototypes to arrive on a delivery truck in a
few weeks. There are many issues involved in bicycle parts
made overseas, we have collected a body of facts on the subject.
[Read Article]
As designers, we must assume responsibility
for the entire life cycle of whatever products we produce.
We must design the product to last as long as possible, and
design it so that it can be repaired easily in the event of
a problem, not just thrown into the trash. Once the product's
life is over and it can no longer be repaired, we must assume
responsibility for it's proper disposal or recycling, recycling
the materials whenever possible. But that is not the extent
of the designer's responsibility. We must look carefully at
how a thing is made, what materials will be used, what kind
of waste will be generated, how much energy will be required
to make each part. What can be done during the design process
to reduce the material waste and energy needed to make the
thing? What are we going to do with the waste? What happens
to it next? Landfill? Bottom of the ocean? We can't sit by
watching highways choke with traffic, sunsets grow redder
and our landfills pile higher. We must do whatever we can
as a company to not add to the problem and hopefully serve
as a realistic example for other companies. Here at King,
we have proven that sustainable American design and manufacturing
works.
We recognize that our role as designers of bicycle
components means that we should not only be striving to produce
the best product we possibly can. We are obligated to also
be designers of waste and scrap recycling procedures, and
water and oil recovery and re-use systems. As we are responsible
for the birth of our parts, we are also responsible for their
ultimate demise.
Designing a product for use throughout its life-cycle
influences every step of our product development. It is why
we buy our raw materials from US sources who are accountable
for their mining and refinery practices. Why we make pucks
on the shop floor, right alongside the parts we sell. Why
we recover and reuse more than 98% of the oil that is used
in cutting the metal to make the parts. Why we trouble ourselves
to create closed-loop zero emissions systems. It is why you
can replace the internals of your headset or hub when, or
if, they ever wear out without just "throwing it away and
getting a new one". Or if you get sick of the color of your
cups, cap or shell, you can exchange them. Not throw them
out. But even if that were the case, you shouldn't pitch them
in the landfill. You should recycle them. It is why we stand
by our 10 year warranty. If we can keep headsets on the road
(or on the trail) longer, then less will become waste.
Making things out of aluminum, steel and titanium
is messy and wasteful. The processes involved require removal
of a fair amount of material in the form of chips (waste),
and that takes energy, oil and metal. But, we're not done.
The parts get polished. They get anodized. It is impossible
to manufacture solid objects without some form of waste. That
being the case, we take every step possible (and create a
few steps of our own) to make our manufacturing processes
as clean and close to waste and emissions free as we possibly
can. It can always be done better. Our systems evolve every
single year, we think this to be more important than having
some newly designed parts to show each year.
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