Hayden Cotgrove
Product Design Engineer
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Battery Powered Hand Tool

I led a project into designing a hand tool that would aid an underserved user group, but still appeal to the mass market. We chose a hand mixer for the elderly; as baking is a common hobby for elderly people but often they are shut out due to the high vibration and wrist strain of traditional hand mixers. After extensive research and idea iterations, the idea was to create a hand mixer that could be held in two orientations to help reduce the wrist strain for users. As such, the gear train had to be redesigned to account for this. The mixer was designed with assembly in mind, including all necessary bosses for screws and ribs for structural stability. The mixer was designed with SolidWorks, and rendered with PhotoView 360. The SolidWorks model was then 3D printed for assembly.

 
 

The Brief

“Design and engineer a battery powered hand - tool for home, garden or educational use, that not only appeals to the mass market but also meets the needs of a specific (underserved) user group. Design and develop an inclusive consumer product that genuinely deserves to exist.”

The Idea

The group decided to design a hand mixer for the elderly and others with general grip or strength impairments. This user group tends to be keen bakers, but may be limited by their disabilities. Additionally, there is a large market of those who would like to bake, are perhaps held back by the perceptions of baking or other factors.

My Contribution

I volunteered to lead the project, as I wanted to make sure the project reached its full potential and I felt this was the best way to do so. As a result, I had a hand in all parts of the design process, from the background research (the bulk of which I ended up doing) to applying these ideas to help come up with the final design. I contributed heavily to the final look and function of the mixer, in part with blue foam modelling, and in part with helping with the CAD using SolidWorks. I also helped generate some of the technical drawings and final renders.

 

Background Research

The group began by sending out surveys to baking groups on Facebook, to help gain an understanding of the market and to know what problems people have with mixers at the moment. Morphological analysis was also used to help come up with novel ways to help improve or solve problems with the design. A hand mixer was also torn apart to see how everything functioned inside.

We ended up getting 100s of responses to the survey we sent out, the majority of whom were from our target demographic of the elderly or those with hand mobility issues, enabling us to use those insights to inform design decisions.

 

Prototyping

To help come up with the form of the design, extensive blue foam modelling was utilised; especially with respect to the handle design which was especially important for our user group. A mixer and a drill were torn down to see how their mechanisms worked; and the two were combined to help come up with the final mechanism to be used.

The looks-like prototypes enabled us to visualise how the product should be used and interacted with.

 

Final Design

The final design has an ergonomic handle that can be held in either orientation, an easy to press ejection button, a speed dial that can be used in either orientation and a balanced weight distribution.

 

Final Prototype

 

Technical Drawings

Technical drawings were generated for every single part, as well as general assemblies for the outside and internal components.