The first three-jet electric jet boards take to the water with help from Siemens Solid Edge.
Siemens has sponsored this post.
EWAKE is a company that specializes in the production of high-tech electric personal watercrafts, also known as jet boards. CEO Peter Ruwe has a deep passion for watersports, including sailing, surfing, wakeboarding and white-water kayaking. In the summer of 2020, he bought a jet board from a small company and saw the potential for electrifying watersports. Since then, the company has grown into industrial production with top-level quality standards, with the help of partners like Siemens and its Solid Edge for Startups program.
What Is a Jet Board?
According to Ruwe, a jet board is a high-tech electric personal watercraft (PWC) that requires extensive engineering and design work. Think of a hoverboard from Back to the Future II. A jet board rides on water, similar to a wakeboard, but it does so with its own power.
Jet boards have been around for more than a decade using gasoline-fueled small, two-stroke engines. EWAKE is looking to change that with efficient batteries and brushless electric motors.
EWAKE’s slogan is “greed for speed.” They have found that the shorter the board, the faster it goes. The company is the only manufacturer with boards that have three parallel jets, which gives it balance and better handling, not just raw power. EWAKE Boards handle better for both normal and advanced riders, according to the company.
“Most people are not extreme riders, but social media likes to see the extreme. In real life, people need a comfortable riding board for enjoying their time in the water,” Ruwe says.
Designing a Fast, Water-Ready Board
The batteries used in these jet boards are similar to those used in the automotive industry, but they are smaller in size and need to withstand the harsh conditions imposed by saltwater.
The electric propulsion drive needs to be efficient and lightweight, as weight matters when in aquatic environments. Additionally, the market requirements for materials and standards are high and the board needs to perform consistently for users of all skill levels and in all conditions.
Initially, the EWAKE boards were created using what Ruwe defines as a “craft process.” But they needed an efficient way to get their design into CAD and ready for real production.
“These requirements and production could only be achieved with CAD modeling, modeling the wiring, flow simulation and CAM,” Ruwe said.
To do all that, EWAKE uses Siemens Solid Edge. The combination of design, rendering and professional CAD, CAM and CAE functions made Solid Edge the right tool for their work.
Via 3D scanning, the EWAKE team was able to get their design into Solid Edge and create rendered models. The hulls and jet power box are entirely made out of carbon fiber impregnated with epoxy resin. The shape is formed under pressure and hardened at 120℃ for three hours. This production process, the materials and form tools are both: non-reversible and expensive.
Leveraging Solid Edge’s capabilities, they were able to iterate and manufacture the boards more efficiently. Their time of development was cut in half (from three months to six weeks) and their risk of faulty components reaching the market went down significantly. All of this results in what EWAKE estimates to be a 40 percent cost reduction for each model generation.
Simulation to Make a Jet Board Faster
Like most engineering endeavors, the jet boards needed to be vetted before going to market. Because of the cost for destructive testing and prototyping, EWAKE utilized Solid Edge’s FlowEFD to simulate their iterations before creating prototypes and production.
Using the simulation software, the company was able to define rotation of their prop for each of the three jet power boxes and calculate the flow of water through it. This led to a nozzle redesign that was optimized and moved more water and, in turn, made the EWAKE Board faster and more balanced.
FlowEFD helped EWAKE optimize their jet propulsion and reduce energy consumption by 15 percent. When you’re working with batteries, every bit of energy savings is key because it means more power can be utilized or more time can be spent on the water.
Entering Siemens’ Xcelerator for Startups
EWAKE is one of a number of startups that have found themselves involved with the Siemens Xcelerator for Startups program. The program provides software and an easy way to get started for startups that are looking to hit the ground running.
But the program is about more than just getting free CAD software. Ruwe told Siemens in an interview, “It’s not just about this software and getting the licenses. That’s important, of course, along with the financing. But what was also important at Siemens was that [they] have a certain environment. At the moment, we are in talks with the TU Munich regarding a special software with 20 students … We are one of 12 projects [involved], and that only works with a partner at your side who doesn’t just sponsor free licenses. That’s what I find so great about Siemens. They put us in touch with people like they did with TU Munich. It goes beyond just licensing the software.”
The ecosystem that EWAKE was able to get involved in with the university has created a valuable environment for product development.
Using Solid Edge and connections within the Siemens ecosystem helped EWAKE become more efficient with their design process and create a better overall product—showcasing features that end-users will enjoy, such as higher speeds and a more balanced ride. Because they were able to set up an iterative process for design and shaping before production, the team reduced their time to market and created a more efficient development process.
As for the future, EWAKE plans to continue producing jet boards with noble designs that use real wood, while still maintaining high-tech standards. According to Ruwe, the company’s clients are looking for something special: a high-tech device that they can own and show off, even when they are not on the water. With the company’s innovative and sophisticated approach to watersports, it’s no surprise that EWAKE is making waves in the industry.
Learn more about the Siemens Xcelerator for Startups program.
