Javier Lopez del Pueyo, the pride of engineering innovation

We continue to give visibility to the best professionals participating in our challenges.

And we continue with the best solutions for the 3D printed scooter wheel design challenge. This challenge was about creating a new product that would improve the market offering. The wheels of these scooters are made of rubber or polyurethane, but rubber is a difficult element to recycle. Wheels may be air-filled or solid. The wheels can have an air chamber or be of a solid material. The first ones are more comfortable but they puncture easily and are difficult to change. There is no optimal design.

In addition to the engineering challenge, this contest seeks to contribute to the entrepreneurship initiative of a group of students from IES San José de Badajoz (Spain). The NGO Ayuda en Acción is helpìng the students with an employability training program. The objective is to deliver some technical training and tools and help them find a job opportunity through entrepreneurship.

While the challenge is still in the evaluation process (several prototypes are being printed and tested), we had the opportunity to talk with one of the 3 finalists.

Who is Javier Lopez del Pueyo?

Javier is a 31-year-old engineer, born in Logroño (Spain) and living in Donostia-San Sebastián for the last 7 years. He studied a bachelor of industrial engineering at the UPV (University of the Basque Country) in Bilbao, with a specialization in product design. More recently he started with Industrial Design through a master’s degree from SHIFTA (Elisava Online School).

His work experience has always been closely linked to engineering. He started with an initial internship at Sener and then went to France to the École National d'Arts et Métiers (ENSAM) in Lille, where he had his first contact with robotics.

Back in Spain he worked at the CEIT technology center as a research engineer until 2019 when he joined Cyber Surgery, a surgical startup where he is currently a research engineer.

His motivations to participate in challenges

He found the ennomotive platform searching for engineering challenges to participate in. Javier considers that challenges such as those of ennomotive or Ayuda en Accion represent a great incentive to develop innovative ideas that can be taken beyond the theoretical level. The Scooter Wheel Challenge is the first competition in which he is participating and he is satisfied with the experience:

"The experience has been positive, so I will remain attentive to future challenges that you pose to us"

How did he come up with the solution that is now one of the finalists’

The constraints of the challenge, having to use 3D printing to make the wheel parts, served as a catalyst for the rim idea:

"Instead of the typical radial design, I chose a hexagonal-matrix rim because it is naturally very resistant and because, despite its complex shape, it is very suitable for 3D printing."

He explains that 3D printing is somehow magic, as it allows engineers to think designs diametrically opposed to other traditional manufacturing methods such as drilling or machining.

In addition Javier believes that 3D printing helps save materials - and cuts costs - but also to reduce manufacturing lead-times, so this was a key factor that made him choose such a design:

"For the tyre, I evaluated and modeled 3 different designs. I opted for the lighter and relatively more resistant."

Without knowing the other solutions presented to the challenge, he believes his design could be a winner for three reasons:

• First, because his design is conceived for 3D printing manufacturing, minimizing printing times by reducing the amount of material, both of the part and the support material.
• Second for the simplicity of assembly, since only 6 screws and 6 nuts are needed, which are perfectly inserted and hidden inside the hexagonal die of the rim.
• And third because he considers that the aesthetics of the rim breaks with the usual design canons and is very attractive.

Javier is an engineer fascinated by innovation and he finds "amazing" his participation in some relevant projects, so he is very proud. A first project was for the company Sener, on the JUICE satellite project, which took off in 2023 in an Ariane 5 towards the ice moons of Jupiter (Ganymede, Callisto and Europa). He spent two months with summer training and was able to develop the mathematical model of a satellite part:

"Being part of the history of space exploration, even with a tiny contribution, is something I never imagined and still makes me smile."

The second project was within Cyber Surgery, a company that has made history by developing the first surgical robot in Spain with successful clinical trials:

"I was fortunate to be part of the company from a very early stage (there were only 10 workers). Our goal was very ambitious: to develop and market a surgical robot that competes face-to-face with industry giants like Medtronic or Globus Medical."

Javier’s professional goal is to move towards Industrial Design; this is what he wants to do in the future. And with that in mind, once again he values a lot his experience in the challenge of scooter wheels:

"I know it’s going to be complicated because I still have a lot to learn and many skills to improve, but I think initiatives like this contest are a very good way to take small steps, prove yourself and move in a direction that I am sure I want to go."