Thursday 22 September 2011
Experience Enrichment
I felt a lack of direction on this project with regards to the finalised solution. Many of my ideas for the re-design of a hand tools was rejected by my tutor, so I ended up having to settle on this design and consequently rushing but what student ever is 100% organised...? My product that I settled on is an handheld adaptation of an industrial technology known as an Air Knife. These are only seen in the consumer market currently in the Dyson range of hand dryers and cooling fans.
Rationale:
“M4K” The air knife
is a hand tool used for removing particles (liquid or solid) from other
surfaces using a precisely controlled pressurized stream of air. The technology
adapted for the “M4K” hand tool is adapted from larger industrial applications
where Air Knives are currently in common use. The end user would likely find
their experience enriched by having access to this technology in a handheld
form and would likely result in novel uses being developed in the field
Air Knives are used
for cleaning, rapid drying, rapid cooling, static removal and as a general
purpose blow off tools.
The preparation of
surfaces is vitally important to achieve high quality finishes on
products. Air Knives can be used
to sweep and blast trapped debris and dust particles off a surface prior to
finer grades of finishing, with reduced potential for damage from cleaning
methods that requires physical contact like brushing or wiping.
When creating products
and objects it is often necessary to wash and dry them after production. In
order to avoid damage to delicate or intricately shaped products, air knives
can be used to scrape the water or cleaning fluids away from the object,
leaving surfaces free of potentially damaging residues. Usability as a drying
tool is extended to the rapid drying of modern paints and coverings that use
fewer solvents for environmental protection reasons and resultantly take longer
to cure.
Air Knives are
often used as an alternative to liquids when cooling down of heated materials
after hot processes.
Static build up on
plastics, glass, rubber and some textiles creates conditions where in can
become difficult to work with these items by causing them to stick together,
attract dust and deliver static electric shocks and arcing as the static
potential attempts to find earth. Air Knives fitted with a negative ion
generating bar can generate a sheet of ions that causes static build up to be
dissipated.
The form of the
“M4K” was arrived at as a result of many hours of thought and concept
development
The “M4K” concept if
manufactured, the body and nozzle would be constructed from cast aluminium with
natural finish timber handle pieces to lend an element of charm and truth to
the materials of this sweeping form
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