iVT has launched its Design Challenge for 2021. Laying down the gauntlet is Jon Pope, renowned industrial designer with 22 years of experience to his name. In the hope of inspiring similar, Pope has designed, rendered then 3-D printed his future interpretation of the articulated dump truck. For Pope creativity is all about doing is for the pleasure.
Pope enjoys the problem-solving element that a design challenge brings. It’s less about creating renderings or “models that look cool,” more about the challenge of devising something in response to a callout.
“That’s the part that keeps me up at night,” he says. “While I’m waiting in line in the grocery market or the bank or anywhere, I’m thinking about the problem instead of staring at my smart phone. Over time I have given away some interesting original ideas. Once you publicly release something without intellectual property rights, you must acknowledge you no longer have rights over it and possess only a slim chance of gaining them after it’s been released to the public. But it pays tenfold in terms of exposure, work and the fun had from coming up with a new machine form.”
Pope’s articulated dump truck is a 45-ton load capacity machine with rotating elevating cab. Up until just a few years ago Pope’s career had been dominated by the internal combustion engine. This is the first large electric vehicle concept he has laid out.
“There is a revolution around electric battery-powered vehicles,” he says. “Batteries are coming down in price and becoming more efficient. Usually I like to make something that can at least in theory be built today. This one I’m pushing a little further down the road. I might be pushing it on the battery size, but the majority of the truck could be built using today’s technology and manufacturing processes.”
