Project 2: AXIENE ANTIMICROBIAL HANDLE
This was one of my earliest projects at Filament and is one I have seen right through the full design process. For around two years, I was lead designer on the project and oversaw the full project right through to DFM. The client came to us with a functional prototype that he asked us to develop into a more refined design with some key mechanisms in place.
The Glana handle is a door handle for commercial places such as offices and schools. The brief was to design a sleek looking handle with inbuilt casing for a reservoir of antibacterial fluid, and this had to have a simple but secure locking mechanism to prevent anyone being able to remove the alcohol liquid without a key. The original design was updated last year to include an easier method of removing and replacing the handle section.
Design for manufacture was a key part of the project and after a building a series of prototypes, I worked closely with the manufacturer to tweak the design for injection moulding. Production is in the final stages and the product should be available to buy by the end of the year.
The first stage of the process was some market research where I explored different possible directions for the design and shared these with the client. This is a part of the process I really enjoy as there are so many options and I think it’s really interesting to try and group existing products together into different directions. I also like to look to other forms and product types at this stage for inspiration.
Some early CAD models are shown here. At this point in the project, the main use area for the handle was expected to be hospital and care environments, hence the slightly clinical look to the designs.
solution
The solution was a two part product made up of: a neck support containing two curved plastic supports covered in memory foam and encased in an adjustable fabric strip, and a 'pod' which can be slotted into the neck support if desired; the pod can be folded over the users eyes and covers their ears. When worn together, the product offers travellers support in their neck which means the chance of back pain is reduced, and furthermore it gives them some privacy if they want to sleep on a long journey. A visualisation of the final design is shown below.
