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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

Rapid Prototyping Helps Athletes Radically Improve Performance

With the help of: TechHelp

About

Located in Sun Valley, Idaho, AVA Cooling Technology is built by an American Army veteran using only American suppliers. Dr. Kyle Sela (PT, DPT, OCS, SCS) is a highly-accomplished sports medicine expert and innovator. Channeling his expertise and passion for innovation, Dr. Sela conceptualized and created AVA Cooling Technology to help athletes perform and recover like never before.

AVA Cooling Technology manufactures an anti-fatigue charge bar, a palm-cooling device designed to reduce fatigue brought on by rising body temperatures during athletic performances like workouts and sports. This effective, practical, and affordable product improves performance and enhances recovery by tapping into an individual’s natural cooling systems to battle fatigue and maintain motivation, allowing athletes to train harder for longer.

The Challenge

While AVA Cooling’s anti-fatigue bar is a great way to improve athletic performance, its technology hinges upon the device's temperature being within a specific temperature range. However, the original release of the device lacked a temperature monitor. As a small business owner with only himself wearing the many hats that keep a business running, Dr. Sela did not have the bandwidth to redesign this part of the device. So, Dr. Sela approached the New Product Development Lab (NPD) at TechHelp, part of the MEP National Network™, to design a new cap that would introduce this feature without personally employing and managing a team of engineers.
The New Product Development Lab has been instrumental in getting my start-up company up and running. Their experience and expertise allowed me to smoothly transition from a gen 1 to gen 2 component of my device. They saved me months of research and thousands of dollars in research and development. I highly recommend partnering with the NPD.
— Kyle Sela, Owner and Founder

MEP's Role

With the help of mechanical engineering students and their rapid prototyping equipment at the New Product Development Lab, Dr. Sela was able to create a simple solution to introduce temperature monitoring. The NPD Lab team was able to print several prototypes to test the design with the existing temperature probe that Dr. Sela sourced. This verification saved AVA Cooling Technology costly injection molding changes. Additionally, the NPD Lab team worked with local injection molding facilities to ensure the product was manufactured properly and timely for the product launch.
Created February 20, 2025