Lightweight; a way of life
Over the years I developed Fransiscó into a lightweight engineering company. Not only is this an ever more important topic, as discussed in: Why lightweight is important for (almost) everything, but it actually started as a personal passion.
I always had cars famed for their lightweight nature and handling. From a stripped down Peugeot 106 Rallye to a Lotus Elise. There is just something about lightweight. Its efficient, dynamic and responsive. Even when looking for our new family car, I was comparing and selecting the candidates on weight.
When you have the lightweight virus, you start to have a different look on thing. When looking for new running shoes, I again studied the weight of trainers. I obviously leaned towards the lightest running shoe but then concluded; no shoe is as low as you can go. Even for me, barefoot was a step to far, so instead I ended up with a slim rubber sole around my foot, the Vibram 5 Fingers. Limited weight, still decent protection. Again efficient, dynamic and responsive. I could go on and on, from the lightest tent, to the lightest camping stove.
Rightweighting
Over the years I have worked on a large variety of weight reduction projects. As with the running shoes, it is all about achieving the best possible compromise. Weight sometimes also has a positive contribution that you have to acknowledge. Examples are a balance weight in a crane, vibation damping or the thermal mass of a brake caliper. That’s why I often use the term rightweighting.
It is my ambition to keep fueling my passion and work on challenging rightweight projects, products and processes.
Gilbert Peters
I’m the founder and owner of Fransiscó. I have a passion for lightweight and high performance engineering. In this blogs you will find occasionally a write-up of things that keep me busy. I you want to know more about my background, please have a look here…
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