Disassembly of coffee machine

LCA lifecycle analysis

Greenfly

When you start a design process you have to look at the whole system. Find out how the product is getting used and how and where it comes from. There is a lot more behind a product than you first would think. Define the problem, that may help you think innovative and see where the actual problem is in the specific system.

It is important to think about the products lifecycle - how long time is it supposed to last. Products as furniture should last for long and therefore it should be designed and manufactured in that way. A bottle of water is not going to hold forever. It will take you no time to drink it and then you are left with only the bottle and it should therefore be a recycled material. The manufacturer will not have to find new resources then and the material can be used over and over again. Another important thing is upgrading - an example could be the Apple products, where they bring a new update to their system, iOS, with some months between each update. This can help on the users desire of getting a new product and if there are no demand the manufacturer will not make new products and then they don't have to get new resources.

Just because you are using recycled material for a product it is not necessary cheaper than a product not made of recycled material. If the product of non-recycled material is getting used a whole life and the recycled product is used once it is not more "green".

If you understand the product your designing and how it fits in the energy system, then you can save a lot of energy and things following like the greenhouse effect and so on.

When you want to make a "green" solution, you don´t start with deciding which product you want to change. You have to start finding the actual problem and then you will have the best circumstances for designing a green solution. If you know what the problem is, you also know where in the system you have to make a change to get the most "green" solution.

Accessible Packaging - WCR 3

Feedback from own tutor - Mariano Ramirez

You should make the "click"-cap and the big cap as one part, then you only need one mould for that part. You also have to make your technical drawings in australian standards.

Listening to other tutors - Tom

Show the packaging in a context, so a person who has not followed your project can see what the packaging is actually for and how it is supposed to be used.

Feedback from Cormack

It works good with the closure mechanism - it is well sealed for liquid olive oil. You have to think about the injection moulding for the bottle - you have to draft it, because it will shrink when cooling.

Reflection and plan of action for this week

I think all the things I was told at this lecture is right and it is something I have to change both on the product design and my posters. So I will start doing all these things and then I will use time on presenting my product design in the best way on the poster. When all this is done, I have to make a 3D-model, where the mechanism is going to be 3D-printed and I don´t know at this time, how I will make the rest of the model, but I will research on that in this week.

Accessible Packaging - Rationale

Accessible Packaging

Today there are many different types of disabilities that makes it difficult to both open and close packaging. There is a huge market of packaging closures, and the probability of finding a closure, that people with a specific disability will be able to use, is good. The problem is then that the big range of closures not are used on every single product - often a product has the same closure even if it is from different companies. That means some people with a specific disability don´t have the opportunity to choose the exact product they want the most. They have to choose by which closure the product has and that does not seem fair.

This project focuses on the disability Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS) and how to make it easier for this group to access a product they should use a lot of and in this case it is olive oil. The syndrome affects your hands strength - some studies have estimated that people with CTS only are capable of exerting about 50% of their hand strength. The syndrome also leads to weakness, pain and sometimes numbness in the hand, and therefore it seems even more difficult to access different types of packaging.

The most common way to get affected by CTS is by daily work, where you are using your hands a lot and in the same movement over and over again. Construction workers, especially those who are using vibrating tools, are in high risk of getting affected by CTS, which workers at an assembly line also are. Some people are genetic born with CTS, because their carpal canals are smaller than average. Women are more likely to be affected by CTS, and often it affects people between 30 and 60 years old (University of Maryland Medical Center, 2013).

People, who were a part of the studies about hand strength, should answer which day-to-day packaging they saw as the most difficult to use compared to the closure. The majority thought it was jam jars with screw lids and bottles with screw caps (The Wall Street Journal, 2012).

The major problem seems to be the screw cap or lid, and almost every single olive oil packaging have closures consisting of screw caps. Therefore this project tries to find a better packaging solution for people with CTS. When they only have one hand with 100% strength it is obvious to make a packaging, where you only have to use one hand to open and close it.

The final solution is a mechanism, where you have to squeeze the bottle made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) to get the olive oil out of the bottle. When you stop squeezing the bottle, the mechanism will make sure that no olive oil runs out. You only have to use one hand to hold around the oval shaped bottle and then tilt it and squeeze. The PET bottle has a cap made of polypropylene (PP) and inside that all the mechanism is placed. It is a round membrane of rubber with a pattern existing of three lines running through each other at the centre. This pattern goes through the rubber vertical, but it is so thin that the liquid olive oil can´t run out before you squeeze the bottle. A bussning made of PP makes sure that the menbrane of rubber is sealed at the inside of the cap.

The olive oil can easily be damaged by heat and light, because these will start an oxidation inside the bottle and that will affect the olive oils flavour, freshness and texture. Therefore an oxygen scavenger is incorporated in the PET bottle, which will stop the oxidation inside the bottle (Wiley Online Library, 2010).

The volume of the bottle is 75 cl, which is the most common used bottle volume in the olive oil industry, and the size and the oval shape also fits good ergonomic in one hand. The PET is chosen because it is more resistant to oil and fat than other plastic materials, it is sustainable and it is easier in weight to lift compared to glass, which is also used a lot in the olive oil industry (Piscopo and Poiana, 2012).

Accessible Packaging - Industry critique

Accessible Packaging - WCR 2

Feedback from own tutor - Mariano Ramirez

You have to make some experiments with other types of upside down bottles, that could for example be a honey bottle where you have to squeeze the bottle to get the honey out. Then try to put olive oil in these types of bottles and observe what happens and what is possible. Is the viscosity of the olive oil to thin and will it then run out before you squeeze the bottle.
Try to make your design so it interacts better with the user - it tells the user exact where to hold around the bottle and it fits better in a human hand.
It is not hygienic that the opening is in direct contact with the surface it is placed on.
Make sure the bottle is sealed well enough, so the oil doesn´t run out when it is not supposed to.
Think about the label and its graphic - your example of an olive oil bottle has a lot of text and graphic and therefore you should think about maybe a more simple label, which gives only the neccessary information to the user. 

Feedback from peers

Adrian: You should design the bottle in a way, where it is easy for the user to see where to hold and at the same time gives a better grip on the bottle.
To solve the problem with leaving oil on the table after use, you could design an extra cap with magnet. It could be placed on the table and after use of the olive oil bottle the user can place the bottle on this cap.

Benedicte: Try to design the opening, so it doesn´t leave any oil on the table after use.

Listening to other tutors - Scott

Think about the size of your packaging compared to the disability you have chosen - is it easy for them to use and could it be designed in a way where it was easier for them to use.
There is happening to much on your packaging, keep it simple so you are not confusing your disability group.

Reflection and plan of action for this week

I will start making some experiments, to see which other opportunities there are for an opening on a upside down bottle. Then I will try to make a design while I have all the constructive criticism I have got in the past two weeks in my mind. When I have the design ready, I can start preparing for next weeks presentation.

Accessible Packaging - Detailed research

 

Accessible Packaging - WCR

Feedback from own tutor - Mariano Ramirez

The concept for packaging is complex and will be expensive to manufacture, and will therefore not be a good idea for juice packaging. The packaging will end up more expensive than the product. If I want to go with one of these concepts, I have to find another product, which is more expensive and you only use a bit of every single time so it last for longer.
The first concept is not that innovative and is seen before in personal care, and it is not a good idea to use packaging from personal care for food and beverage.

Feedback from peers

Ole Andre Bech: There can be some problems with concept 2 under the transportation, because the pipe can by an accident be pushed in and then will the beverage run out.

Clark Hou: Maybe you could make a solution for concept 2, where the user have to assemble the parts when they have bought it. Then you don´t have the problem under transportation.
There can occur friction between the cap´s inside and the two small buttons, when the pipe pops up.

Listening to other tutors - Tom

It is very important that you show with your concept an understanding for the accessibility issue you have chosen.
The product and packaging have to interact with each other - you have to understand the product you are making packaging for. Honey can both be liquid and solid, so if it is solid it makes no sense to make packaging where the user have to squeeze.

Reflection and plan of action for this week

It make a lot of sense that the packagings costs have to be compared with the products costs, so I will go find a new product, so the packagings costs will make more sense. Then I will make a thorough research of the product, so I understand possibilities and limits for packaging to exactly this product. Then I can begin on 2D and 3D developments.

Accessible Packaging - Research

Phase 1 in Project 1 is about making research of an accessibility issue people are struggling with when facing packaging. My projects focus is on people with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, which affects their strength mostly in one hand - it is reduced with almost 50 %. The syndrome often leads to pain, numbness and weakness, and therefore it seems hard for them to use both hands when they are facing packaging.