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Simplifying Life Through Technology
SoundVision LLC is a lifestyle technology company located in Mooresville, North Carolina. We interview vendors, clients and staff with the purpose of demystifying the capabilties of new technologies for your home or business and sometimes highlighting local content that is important to our community.
Simplifying Life Through Technology
Hans DeBot - DeBotech
On this episode of “Simplifying Life Through Technology,” Mark, Michelle, Zach, and Marshall sit down with Hans deBot from deBotech, Inc.
Join us as we delve into the fascinating world of carbon fiber manufacturing with Hans DeBot, owner of DeBotech, Inc. Established in 1998 by Hans DeBot, a Mechanical and Aerospace Hall of Fame Inductee from North Carolina State University, DeBotech specializes in crafting high-quality carbon fiber and advanced composite products. With over two decades of expertise, DeBotech's portfolio includes everything from America's Cup sailing spars to chassis and bodywork for racing syndicates, as well as production parts for Automotive OEMs, showcasing their commitment to excellence.
On this episode of "Simplifying Life Through Technology," Hans shares insights into DeBotech's collaboration with General Motors on their iconic Corvette models. Hans unveils the layers of precision and secrecy that go into the early stages of future model developments, highlighting the substantial investments and unwavering partnerships that bring automotive marvels to life. We'll also learn why the tech industry thrives on stellar customer service through Hans' experiences.
Hans also shares his firsthand account of the C8 Corvette's formidable prowess. Hans explains what working with SoundVision means. We'll also navigate the triumphs and trials of his custom outdoor TV design against the relentless elements of coastal conditions. Discover how an inspired innovation and Han’s expertise working in marine environments fused to create unique, corrosion-defiant lifts fit to withstand any weather condition. We'll reveal the nitty-gritty of employing anodized aluminum, powder coating, and stainless fasteners into designs to avoid galvanic corrosion. As we recount the tales of building during the COVID-19 shutdown, you'll see just how much local collaboration and hands-on effort can lead to unforgettable custom solutions.
Tune in for an episode filled with behind-the-scenes exclusives and a deep dive into the world of carbon fiber manufacturing and innovative design!
DeBotech’s Services:
- Multiple Autoclaves to handle quick turn around.
- Ability to handle high quantity production runs.
- Complete Traceability for every part built from material used to operator responsibility through the use of barcode technology.
- Full reverse engineering with the use of a Laser Faro Arm.
- 3-D modeling to assist in the design of your project.
- 100% repeatability of product conformity.
- Advanced manufacturing techniques.
- Rapid Prototyping.
- Extensive Knowledge of the full range of composite materials...carbon fiber, fiberglass, kevlar, aramids, etc.
- Experience with Ballistic-integral materials.
- Utilization of Robotic Technologies to ensure efficiency.
- Integrated graphics and logos.
- Fully integrated mounting hardware.
- Full Assembly and Paint Services.
- Various Processing techniques available to meet our customer's specific needs.
To learn more about DeBotech:
To learn more about SoundVision:
https://www.svavnc.com/
To listen to more “Simplifying Life Through Technology” podcasts:
https://open.spotify.com/show/7fIkJuLZ7lZ8xbafz62muQ
Check out our Instagram to see our recent projects:
https://www.instagram.com/soundvisionllc/
Contact Us Today: (704) 696-2792 Ext. 1 | Info@svavnc.com | soundvisionlkn.com
Welcome to Simplifying Life Through Technology. Today's guest joining us we have Dennis Hans.
Speaker 2:We have actually used your home as an example for a couple of different print articles and industry publications, that's right. Can you tell us a little bit about what you do?
Speaker 3:So DeBotek is a carbon fiber manufacturer. We produce pretty much the majority of all the carbon fiber product for General Motors on Corvette, so we primarily deliver straight into the OEM for Corvette and products alike. We're doing a big program right now for Cadillac as well, so General Motors is our primary customer. They're obviously a great customer.
Speaker 4:They're huge, huge. Hard to get any better out there.
Speaker 3:The size of the company they are and very demanding. You know I used to be heavy in the motorsports and different types of aspects of product manufacturing and building.
Speaker 4:Do you actually do the carbon fiber manufacturing here and ship it to Detroit?
Speaker 3:Detroit is where all the design happens and where the headquarters is, but, like for Corvette, manufacturing is in Bowling Green, kentucky. Oh, okay, so the manufacturing plant for Corvette is in Bowling Green, Kentucky. So, yes, the answer to your question is we build all the products and or some of them may ship to a sub tier supplier for another process. Sure, we provide like interior products, and some of our carbon fiber interior products go to the leather company and then they produce it into a door panel and then it ships to then it ships to Bowling Green.
Speaker 4:Kentucky, so cool, cool. So when they came up with the new design of the corvette, you were probably early on, like nda type stuff, when they were coming up with it, because you were going to fabricate the panels.
Speaker 3:Here's the funny thing about doing oem carbon fiber work or oem any manufacturing for a production oem. They're working on. Model year cars we're working on model year 25 model year're working on model year 25, model year 26 cars right now.
Speaker 3:So we're always NDA, we're always, you know, lockdown shop kind of thing. People always want to go. Can I come do a tour? Can I come do this? And it makes it difficult because we have to protect the rights of General Motors, because we're working on stuff that the public obviously doesn't know, public can't see. So we're doing development way early on.
Speaker 4:Can you answer the question of how much of that do they shut down and never actually comes out?
Speaker 3:Very little of it because they plan it very early on, to the point that if they know they're building composite parts or certain particular manufactured parts, then they're pretty embedded. I mean, they're spending billions of dollars in development for new programs.
Speaker 3:Wow, so by the time that they're invested in all of the development. Engineering. Tooling is huge, right. I mean to do tools for big injection molded front fascias and rear fascias and things like that. It's big money. So they're spending millions of dollars with manufacturers to develop these parts. So it's kind of hard for them to pull the plug right. So they have to do their due diligence. I mean I do have to say General Motors, you know, engineering wise is a phenomenal car, right, the performance of the new C8 is unbelievable. I mean, I personally own a 2019 ZR1 and there's nothing like it. I mean it's nothing short of a street legal race car.
Speaker 4:How did you come about us or what were you searching for? How did our relationship begin?
Speaker 3:Interesting in its own right, just from all my friends and things that I've dealt with around and the fact that we're in the same park, right, I mean most people, you know, I'm behind the scenes per se in the OEM world and a lot of times in the racing world.
Speaker 3:You know we've been a manufacturer inside Talbot Point Business Park now for going on 20 years, wow, okay, so you know you get to know a bit of your neighbors and you know a lot of people and Zach had some mutual friends and somebody passed the information along, the information along, and I knew a lot of the things that I wanted to do, because early on when we built the house um, you know, we designed and built our own house and whatnot back in. We moved in in 2008, so when we were in there, it was grand concerto and nouveau systems which was at the time was was good, it was cool, yeah it was cool, so know, we had 17 zones in the house for music and whatnot.
Speaker 3:But obviously, with change in technology and things that we wanted to upgrade and do, just from meeting with Zach and the things about it, you know, of course, none of it's cheap, right, I mean, we all know that electronics, and especially in this day and age. But I got to tell you, you know, that the one thing that I really enjoy and it's just because that's who I am anyway I really love people and I like friends and I like making friends and I like working with people.
Speaker 5:I like we would have never guessed that Herb.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I really do like working with people.
Speaker 3:I like you know. So it's been a real good synergy for all of us, because I love all you guys I mean michelle as well and the fact of how awesome your customer service is. I mean, if I've got a problem and it's saturday afternoon and I can text one of the boys and marshall's king to it hey man, I'm not, this, isn't doing, and he remotes in and fixes it, and then I'm back online and and then, of course, when you're doing, you know, unfortunately we had the contractor catastrophe with our pool deck. Oh yeah, had to rebuild our pool, which was, you know, its own. I'm glad I lived through it. I mean, I look back now and the only thing I lost was time. Actually, the coolest thing about it is, I mean, I look at it now and I'm very happy that it happened, because if it didn't, I would have been with my old design a pool and there's no difference in what it is today.
Speaker 3:I mean so the fact that it got all jacked up and now it is what it is. I mean I'm okay with it getting jacked up.
Speaker 5:I think it's absolutely worth mentioning that Hans's hospitality and appreciation throughout every one of our projects has been unmatched, and we certainly appreciate that.
Speaker 4:Really nice to be able to do events like this and have folks like you come in and be advocates. Not only is it awesome to be able to work with you, but the projects we get to do are so freaking cool.
Speaker 3:Well, we learned a lot.
Speaker 4:I mean, you know, we thought that many conversations behind the scenes.
Speaker 3:We thought we had some solutions and, unfortunately, things that are advertised to do what they're supposed to do, and you know it was a very frustrating time. I mean not only for me but for the guys, because the guys come out and they work really hard and they install equipment. It's supposed to work and you know it's rated to do this and it's advertised to do that and you load up A, b and C and you hit the go button. It's like, yeah, nothing.
Speaker 4:So, marshall, because our listeners don't know what we're talking about, why don't you describe exactly what it is?
Speaker 5:Yeah, absolutely. Hans has one of the most unique outdoor pool projects we've ever done and it was a pleasure to be a part of it. A part of that project is a really massive I'll call it TV lift that comes out of the outdoor kitchen area. With the size TV that Hans chose, he really put the project to the test and the granite right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I think now it's different.
Speaker 5:Now it's carbon fiber, right.
Speaker 3:You know that was part of the problem, right? Too much weight. No, a Sunbright TV is rated. It weighs X amount the original. And I'm not trying to throw anybody under the bus, but the original lift system was fully rated to hold this TV right. So we designed and built paper anyway on paper.
Speaker 3:We designed and built everything involved with the kitchen, the tv, the pool, because all that construction happens well in advance of putting in a tv or putting in a lift. So we do all this work all of a sudden we go to install it, we install it, hit the up down button or the let's even just turn it on kind of thing and I think it went up three times and chewed up all the gears in it and so.
Speaker 4:so one of the things you I don't know if you know or not, but behind the scenes we were having a lot of conversations with the different manufacturers and it's very uncommon in our industry to have an expert in the actual like mechanics of how a lift works and how it's engineered. And so we're talking usually Zach is talking to the engineer at whatever company and this the guy's saying all this stuff and he's going well, our customer like does this Well?
Speaker 3:and that's what we had to do. So we go to a new manufacturer and manufacturers in California and you know they do a lot of which was interesting. My know they do a lot of which was interesting. My background comes from a lot of marine application, right, well, you deal in marine application stuff. When I started doing carbon fiber work, I worked for a company in charlotte and we manufactured carbon fiber sailboat spars, which is a big stick that comes up out of the middle of the sailboat oh, okay and when I first started for the company, I was doing aluminum extrusion stuff, we were doing all aluminum spars.
Speaker 3:They wanted to start a company and do it in carbon fiber. They hired a guy to do it and unfortunately it was kind of like some of those lift designers, you know. They had no clue what they were doing. And so the next thing you know, I'm a 25 year old kid and they're going well, give it to Hans man, He'll figure it out so I mean, I just just figure it out.
Speaker 3:I mean, I just figured it out so we started building the only continuous fiber one-piece hollow sailboat spar in the world and that's how I started in carbon fiber, so it's awesome dealing in marine. You deal with bad environment right salt air, aluminum, carbon, things like that.
Speaker 3:They become anodes and yeah, things we even have to consider with a beach house yeah, galvanic corrosion is bad news when you're talking about things that you're doing and marine applications like at the beach and things like that. So we contacted and, of course, got with this new manufacturer and you know, he said oh, I got a lot of marine experience and da da, da, da da, and so they had done what they thought was going to be their design.
Speaker 3:And you know. And eventually they sent out the first one. We got it and it was like the same thing. You hit the go button, it was like ain't going to work, I mean it ain't going to touch this thing. And so Zach said well, you know what, maybe we ought to just forego all this kind of guesswork. And so he got me hooked up with the owner of the company and next thing, you know, I'm designing half his lifts and things for his company. He's like dude, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:So on this next one man, this is an outdoor environment. So, you know, all your aluminum doesn't need to be raw, needs to be anodized, right, so anodize it. All your stuff needs to be powder coated, powder coated, you know. And you got to be using stainless fasters. You can't be using, you know, just standard steel fasters are going to corrode in weeks. And so he's like, oh man, this is great. And so, literally, we basically built this entire design lift custom with this manufacturer and thank god he took it on yeah, you know, I mean I got to give him kudos.
Speaker 3:He took it on well I mean, it's a huge win for him. Well, he stuck behind it.
Speaker 4:You designed one.
Speaker 5:He's now got everyone going forward probably true so, and it's okay that that's the case, because his flexibility and his improvements reflect on y'alls and this exact situation is very much a part of our vetting process when we choose to keep a manufacturer or to ditch one or the other. These circumstances certainly weigh into that, for sure.
Speaker 4:And that's a good point and how they receive this dude this DIY guy. But for him to kind of go wait. Wait a second, like this guy really knows what he's talking about. Yeah, we can probably benefit from this. So, yeah, it helps us to vet a manufacturer. Now we know the next time this guy is going to really work with us if he has to.
Speaker 3:He was a nice guy. That's what was probably the most awesome about it was like you said. The guy could have easily been like I don't need this job, I don't need to deal with this problem. We had already designed everything around the original picked items, right, I mean, we? Obviously it was a lot of ticket items to do the whole thing. So you know, going back, if you were just doing one lift and one TV, obviously you can put more emphasis on one lift and one TV. But when you're doing a laundry list of complete revamp, full tower, all the stuff, the audio video TVs, everything that we did came down to you know he could easily stepped out and bowed out. But luckily the relationship was really good and we hit it off right away and he's like man, I really appreciate you helping me Cause I want to raise the bar on my product and I said man, I'm just here to help. I just I need one lift, dude.
Speaker 2:And the ability to have repair parts if I need something that was kind of funny or fun, michelle, and doing our marketing and advertising after your install was done. We had a few national publications that reached out, saw some of the social media feeds. Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, wanted to learn more about your project, specifically us and you, and how we deployed it. There was some interest in the manufacturers that were used and I told the person. When they called to interview me. I said I tell what every editorial we read is this sunshiny roses story about how everything worked perfect. And I was like I'm not going to tell you that story, I'm going to tell you how this thing had issues. And she was like this is fantastic, this is the story I want to tell. So that editorial was written about from an angle more of problem solving than anything, and that was a lot of fun.
Speaker 5:Yeah that's really cool.
Speaker 3:Well, it doesn't always go smooth, peachy, keen, so you got to be able to think outside the box. The coolest thing about it was he was willing to think outside the box and I mean now it just kind of blows people's mind that you know because you walk out there you would never know it. I mean there's still ongoing things that unfortunately, with the way contractors are and things like that, even the guy that I finally got to help me do the job when COVID hit, everything was in shutdown. I spent six months out there working on it every day myself. I was paying my kids, I was paying high school kids out there to sling rebar and carry rock.
Speaker 5:I mean, dude, I got to get this pool built, man this thing's going to be the death of me.
Speaker 3:So, ultimately, there's fine-tuning little things going on and, as a matter of fact, we have some really unique awnings and things that are coming out because the pergola is installed. Now. The guys are out there painting and, as a matter of fact, the guy was out there this morning and they're painting this new pergola that was done and once it's done, you guys need to come out because it's probably a lot of things that you can tailor to, and it's another local company here in mooresville that does it. John Alden's his name and he's a phenomenal guy. We love meeting contractors.
Speaker 3:Yeah but we'll end with you. Really well, that was another company, right? This is all custom. So I mean I drew it all. I did it all on a computer, drew it all up, designed it I mean even the mounts and everything down to the footers and the whole deal and the guy takes it on, he goes I'll build that, you know. So now I've got a great relationship with them and so you know the painter's out there and all of a sudden this guy's wanting to stand up on. This looks like an inch and a half thick piece of slab granite. You know I'm going dude, you ain't standing on that.
Speaker 3:I mean, that's actually only a carbon fiber lid with a veneer of quartz on top of it. That nobody would ever know. Because again back to the whole weight thing of the Sunbright TV and the mechanism and everything else it's like how are you going to slap on a 250 pound extra slab of granite on top of it? So the fact that I'm in the carbon fiber business I built the lid out of carbon fiber and then we veneered it with the same countertop material and island material. But when you look at it it looks like an inch and a quarter thick, inch and a half thick piece of solid granite and it weighs about five pounds.
Speaker 4:So well, hans, we are so appreciative of all the work and thank you very, very much for coming tonight and for joining us here for some fun.
Speaker 3:Well, let me answer your major question, right? I mean, what is Sound Vision to me? They're family, right. They're my friends. They're some of the greatest people I love, the people in my life that I want to spend time with. So I'm here to support them because y'all are my friends, right, it is business. It is business. It is a business relationship to some extent. But when you cross that bridge of, okay, we're going to do business together, it's a whole different scenario. I mean I love you guys, right. I mean you do great work. Your customer service is second to none. Marshall's a text away for me. You know, if I got problems, it's's you know, it's never. You better fill out a service request, or you better do this, he's I mean it's like, don't say that you know what I mean.
Speaker 3:It's, it's it's to log in and hit reset right I mean sometimes you got to draw the line where you can hit reset yeah and but just in general.
Speaker 3:You know it was never a question after my experience working on the Troutman home that I had the opportunity to do what we needed to do in Raleigh. So obviously there are other companies in Raleigh but it meant more to me to do it with my friends and my family to make sure, because I knew I'd be taken care of and I knew I'd be taken care of and I knew I'd be taken care of if there was any problems. So you know it's electronics. Things kind of go on the fritz every once in a while.
Speaker 3:And half the time it's out of sight, out of mind. You know, when you're dealing with certain customers or certain vendors, once they're done with you you're just a check and we don't want anything else to do with you. And you know I can honestly say there's a lot of me marshals at the house the other day we're looking at a lot of upgrading of lighting. You know we've got still a lot to do with blinds. So you know our future and the things that we're going to do will continue on. And you know I'll tell you right here today I have no problem at all. You need any customer referrals. You need me to talk to any customer you got. I'm your guy.
Speaker 4:All right, well again, hans. Thank you so much. Anytime you need me, just ask.
Speaker 5:Love it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us. You can learn more about SoundVision at SoundVisionLakeNormancom. You can follow us on Twitter at SoundVisionLKN. Find us on Instagram and Facebook at soundvisionllc.
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