I was very lucky to work with Panaxion, a start-up company based here in Montreal, on the manufacturing-prototype of their invention, the Axion. It consists of an automated on-the-fly paint-blender and paint-applicator.

The Axion?

The Axion is a paint mixing device composed of five paint containers, a paint flow control system and a paint blending apparatus. The whole system is controlled by a PC. As you select a colour from a user-defined colour palette in the Coloraxion software, the machine dispenses the appropriate amounts of different colour paints in order to produce the desired blend.

The machine is rather ingenious and is going to make its debut in the professional decorative painting realm very soon (I’ll keep you posted on that).

My Involvement

I was involved in the mechanical and electrical design of the first manufacturing prototype. I was lucky enough to learn SolidWorks and draw the entire machine (up to the very last detail). The resulting 3D model was then used to build the actual prototype and to produce some multimedia material. Needless to say that I was very happy to participate in the construction.

Did you say start-up?

Panaxion is a start-up company and is soon going to manufacture Axions. Their website is under heavy construction at the moment but it should become stable (and beautiful) soon. If you are interested in decorative painting (in the non effeminate sense), I suggest you keep an eye on this project.