When the REI Co-op Traverse bear canister hit the cabinets this yr, it modified the sport for anybody who camps or backpacks in bear nation. Conventional bear-resistant meals canisters come in several sizes, requiring a number of cans for journeys of assorted distances or forcing you to hold a bigger measurement than you want for a complete journey. The distinctive modular design of the brand new REI Co-op Traverse bear canister gives two sizes in a single product. Seize the smaller 6.75-liter measurement for shorter journeys or the bigger 11.25-liter measurement for longer ones. As you eat your meals, nest one part into the opposite to unencumber pack house.
Manufactured from sturdy polycarbonate, the container is licensed bear-resistant by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee to guard your meals from animals. It’s additionally see-through, so prospects can simply see their meals inside. And the intense orange coloration makes it straightforward for people to identify even at midnight. (Bears odor meals lengthy earlier than they see it.)
BTS: Bear examined, human authorised
“We did two completely different sorts of analysis methodologies for the bear canister,” explains Bryan Jackler, REI product researcher. One check concerned individuals; the opposite one concerned bears.
Preliminary testing with individuals centered on ease of use and performance of the modular system. The workforce used prototypes that they created with a 3D printer. “The canister was the primary giant product we ever printed on a 1-to-1 scale,” explains Devin Paschke, supervisor of engineering and product improvement for REI and the mind behind the bear canister.
The co-op workforce carried out area testing with a number of printed prototypes—although not in bear territory—and used the suggestions to make enhancements. After a number of iterations of 3D-printed prototypes and testing, they created a sturdy polycarbonate canister able to put to the check on grizzly bears.
One morning in late 2023, Paschke and Nate Bullock, REI senior product designer, drove to the Washington State College Bear Heart in Pullman to take part within the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee (IGBC) certification course of. The Bear Heart and its resident grizzly bears recurrently check gadgets like coolers, dumpsters and rubbish cans for bearproofing effectiveness.
“We have been capable of watch the bears interacting with the canister in actual time,” says Paschke. The grizzlies are launched right into a pen space with a canister crammed with temptations like donuts, honey, kibble and Twinkies. “They took the canister onto the laborious dust, the grassy floor and the concrete and simply beat it up, throwing it in opposition to logs, the partitions, no matter. Some used brute muscle. Some used what the Bear Heart calls ‘chest compressions,’ and a few have been biters, utilizing their tooth.”
To be licensed bear-resistant, a product should face up to one hour of lively bear interplay with out having access to the product. For instance, no holes on the inside wall may very well be bigger than one-quarter inch, says Gardner. Rolling or dragging the canister doesn’t depend as lively time, he provides. Biting, clawing, throwing and different maneuvers do.
The grizzlies definitely tried all of it. One submerged the canister in a trough of water, hoping the water-logged container would create an even bigger affect, Bullock says.
One other took the canister into its den, a roughly 10×10 cinderblock room. She stood on hind legs and threw it into the wall so laborious it bounced off and hit one other. “It didn’t break. It didn’t crack,” says Dave Gardner, REI senior check engineer who noticed her. “That was actually cool factor to see. Simply a kind of issues the place you understand how highly effective these animals are.”
Through the first check with grizzlies in 2023, one bear managed to bit into the higher corners of the lid. Persistent bears can flip small holes into greater ones, in order that model failed to satisfy the IGBC requirements, Gardner says.
The bears gained.
Again to the drafting board
After analyzing the harm, the co-op refined the design. The bears had been capable of get a very good buy on the lid with their tooth, says Gardner. So the workforce targeted on modifying the lid and the thickness of the fabric. Within the lab, they even created a steel probe within the measurement and the form of a bear tooth to make use of in opposition to the product.
The workforce returned within the spring 2024 with a stronger prototype for a second trial spherical. Due to the modular design, each elements—the smaller configuration and the bigger measurement—needed to be individually examined.
This time, the canister gained.
“Understanding we had a product that truly, in the end outsmarted them was fairly cool,” Gardner says.
That wasn’t the top of testing, although. The product workforce despatched the bear-approved canister into the sphere to place it by means of extra rigorous testing with people. Over practically 30 trials, backpackers of all talent ranges, from newbie to superior, evaluated it in a spread of temperatures and climates.
“Individuals actually beloved how the can was modular,” says Jackler. “It is a little little bit of a sport changer, one thing that they hadn’t seen earlier than.” Some individuals did really feel that the canister could also be barely heavier, however that the modularity was nicely value that further little bit of weight.”
Testers favored the high-visibility coloration. “I do know I’ve simply been fumbling across the woods a bunch of instances looking for mine,” says Jackler. “That orange actually stands out.”
How the two-in-one modular design works
The 2-in-one bear canister consists of three principal items that work collectively in a modular design for various meals storage wants. The threaded lid screws onto the center piece when utilizing the canister in its giant measurement. Or screw it onto the underside piece when utilizing the canister in its smaller configuration. Within the smaller measurement, the center piece stacks seamlessly exterior of the underside part. The system nests neatly—and conveniently—collectively.
The user-friendly design incorporates two steel push buttons which can be straightforward to function with out instruments—one situated on both sides. To open the canister, maintain it securely with one hand whereas compressing button No. 1, adopted by a twist of the lid, after which compress button No. 2. This ensures comfy usability for individuals with smaller fingers and people carrying gloves, making it accessible for a spread of customers.
“We deliberately included clear directions and visible cues on each the product itself and the stow sack, understanding that the canister’s distinctive modular design could be unfamiliar to many customers,” says Bullock.
Its included carry bag options printed directions for opening, closing and changing the canister between sizes. The carry bag’s measurement might be adjusted; it’s reflective for visibility beneath a flashlight or headlamp. Lash loops make it straightforward to connect on the surface of a backpack, to the webbing on a raft or through carabiner and strap in a kayak.
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