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Steunbeugel met spoelbediening voor mindervalide toiletgangers

Weststeijn, Hanneke (2013) Steunbeugel met spoelbediening voor mindervalide toiletgangers.

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Abstract:	In the context of the Bachelor Graduation Project there has been fullfilled a design problem for WISA B.V.. WISA is a Dutch compagny which produces and sells products for sanitary facilities. Untill now, WISA did not offer specific products for the target group ‘elderly and disabled’. Because of the growing amount of elderly in Europe, WISA wants to respond on the growing market with a new productline. In 2011 WISA did research to possibilities to enter this market. One of the products that can be designed to fix the gap between the new market and WISA’s product specialties is an arm support with a control for flushing the toilet. In this project a concept of the new product has been designed. The product needs to make the toilet more accesible by giving the user support while sitting down and standing up. The concept has to fullfill the requirements of all the stakeholders and the wishes from the market. Besides this all, the arm support has to compete with arm rests in the market based on ease of use, design and price. Before the design phase was started, an analysis has been made about the target group, the competitors, the competing prices, the spaces where the arm support has to be installed and the standards. On reference to this analysis and interviews with stakeholders, a programme of requirements and wishes has been made. There has been chosen to develop an arm support for the professional health sector. The product is subject to changing users. This choice has been made, because this target group is the most reachable for WISA with her current sales strategy. But also because the amount of new living places (with health care) will increase in the upcoming years. To get to a new product concept, there has been made a lot of sketches. The main focus in this sketsches was on these points of improvement: - Improvement of the locations of support points; - More grip; - The control for flushing the toilet is reacheble for the user; - Adaptability to the user; - Locking the folding up. Out of all these generated ideas, three concepts has been compiled. One concept, a composition of the three concepts, has been developed into a final draft. Hereby, there has been taken account with: saving space, applied forces on the support, production possibilities, ergonomics and the ease of use. To discover if the arm rest meets the ergonomic needs, a prototype is made. Currently, some changes has been made to the concept according to the tests with this prototype. The designed concept is evaluated by using the program of requirements. Recommendations for further development of the arm rests has been made. The concept needs to be tested among the target groups by a use test. Furthermore, in the development of the product extra attention needs to go to the manufacturability, the forces in the product and minimalizing the production costs. With the 3D-models (SolidWorks and a fysical model) and this report, made during this bachelor graduation project, a concept design of an arm support is presented to WISA. There is still needs to be done a lot of research and design work to make the concept suitable to all the major requirements. After this has been done, the concept can be developed into a manufacturable product. Hopefully the results of this bachelor thesis laided a good foundation for the project and may it be continued.
Item Type:	Essay (Bachelor)
Faculty:	ET: Engineering Technology
Subject:	20 art studies
Programme:	Industrial Design BSc (56955)
Link to this item:	https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/63974
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