TECHNOLOGY FOCUS
Innovative Design
A roundup of recent advances in engineering technology. In this issue, a look at innovative applications of industrial design.
REDESIGNING CHILDREN’S FURNITURE FOR STABILITY
The constraints for producing goods for children are formidable. Because kids can be energetic, reckless, and fragile—usually all at the same time—their furniture needs to be durable, lightweight, and designed for safety. In fact, in 2021, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission established a standard for children’s chairs and stools.
The table and chair set from the startup furniture company Bauen aims to be safe, durable, and a lot more. The pieces, made from recycled plastic, feature widely spread legs and a low center of gravity to make them difficult to tip over and water resistance to enable them to work outdoors as well as indoors. The chairs are intended to be strong enough that an adult can sit on one, at a back-patio tea party, say, or while giving a child a bath.
The legs of the table attach without tools, so that the playset can be stored if necessary or tossed in the car to take on vacation.
According to the company, the furniture is made in the United States, and that likely explains the price, a relatively expensive $649. The company is banking on parents spending a little extra on solid industrial design.
ROBOTIC HANDS MADE TO MEASURE
As automation increases through industries, engineers are looking to adapt robots to tasks that have to now been carried out by humans. These tasks often take advantage of the agile—and soft—hands of human workers. While robots have been used for years to bend metal or weld joints, no one wants to rely on them to pick up eggs.
A team of engineers at the University of California, San Diego, has developed a new type of robotic gripper that can grab objects securely without crushing them. The key element of the system is an everyday tape measure.
Each finger of the gripper is made of two tape measures bound together and bent into a triangle. As the tapes unspool, the triangles lengthen, and when the fingers press against an object, they deflect but retain a firm contact.
“The tape measure is such a wonderful structure because of its combined softness and stiffness together,” said Nick Gravish, a faculty member in the UC San Diego Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, in a press statement.
BIKE LOCK SNAPS SHUT
Bicycles are a lightweight and flexible form of transportation. But what makes them easy to use also makes them easy to steal. As cyclists ramp up their security—through heavy chains or chunky locks—the apparatuses they need to carry around start to weigh them down.
Strong Locks, a company based in Lyon, France, recently launched a new type of permanently mounted lock for bikes and scooters. The lock mounts to the handlebar tube via tamper-resistant rivets to deter thieves from separating it from the rest of the bike. When a rider approaches a secure post, he flips the lock up and opens the two arms with a key. To secure the bike, the rider presses the lock against the post; this depresses a trigger that snaps the arms shut. If the lock is left in the open position while riding, locking the bike can be as quick as bumping against a post.
The V-160 lock is convenient (as long as there’s not a front basket on the bike), but at seven pounds, it’s still heavy. But the company, which received money via Kickstarter to pay for the first run of manufacturing, is hoping convenience wins over converts.
FUNGUS PACK DIGESTS DISPOSABLE DIAPER
Plastics are a miracle of technology, but when they reach the end of their useful lives, disposing of them becomes a challenge. Plastics may degrade, but they don’t rot, and some types of plastics may sit in landfills little changed for decades or centuries. Disposable diapers are particularly problematic, as they are by nature single-use and opportunities for recycling are limited at best.
Austin, Texas-based Hiro Technologies has developed a disposable diaper that it says will disappear.
The diaper itself is fairly standard, made from soft plastics and natural fibers such as cotton. Where it differs is in the design of its afterlife: Instead of tossing out the soiled diaper at once, the caregiver first folds in a packet containing spores of a plastic-eating fungus discovered in the Amazon about a decade ago. The spores activate in contact with water, so after a few weeks—that is, after the diaper has completed its journey to the landfill—the spores produce a fungus that releases an enzyme that breaks apart the long polymer chains in the plastic. Within about a year, the company says, the diaper will be completely digested.
CARPENTRY WITHOUT THE RULER
In addition to a steady hand, a dedication to careful measurement is needed to be a good woodworker. Sawn pieces that are too long won’t fit together properly; pieces that are too short become scrap.
Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL) have developed a system for building with wooden pieces that requires no measurement at all. Instead, woodworkers access CAD files directly via augmented reality displays; the system matches scans of the planks and boards with the digital design files and guides the tools to make exact cuts.
“Our system includes a detection mechanism and integrated sensors that give feedback in real time,” said EPFL doctoral student Andrea Settimi in a press statement. “If the woodworking tool or the beam it’s cutting slips, for example, the virtual overlay will remain aligned with the actual piece of timber so that operators can instantly see how to adjust their movements.”
The system, called Augmented Carpentry, is intended to enable even small woodworking businesses to produce intricate designs.
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