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