Design

Deskpal is a small gadget that helps to tidy mess; it creates organised mess. The product was inspired from the smaller version, found by the dozen on china wholesale sites. These versions have much smaller rods that stick up, allowing only pencils to be held. With this improved device it is taller which allows larger objects to be sorted along with all the other traditional desk stationary items. Given the larger form factor it brings in the opportunity for advertisement and promotion, these can be displayed on the bottom and all sides. This is a product that can promote a large amount of companies, and it is not just limited to stationary companies and this is something to be emphasised – this is a product that would be useful at the work office and home office which makes it a great platform for promotion.

After investigating current situations, it was clear to see a number of key features to include during design implementation:

•Mininalistic single unibody design•Simplistic, cost effective manufacturing methods•Multiuse construction

Market ViabilityOne of the key factors that has driven the design of the product is the specific category – pens. As there is simply no category for the desk tidy to slot into I found alternative ways of looking at the market. It was obvious to see that a large amount of pens were chosen as promotional items and this is because they are such a useful product. Currently there is no promotional item that offers a solution to storing these pens along with other stationary items and this is where DeskPal comes in. Obviously there are a large amount of pens on the market and this was taken into account by adding internal bands that are around the internal protruding tubes. This allows pens of any size to be slotted in opening up to a large majority of different shapes and sizes – it’s almost universal.

Material & ManufactureThe chosen material for DeskPal was Silicone rubber, this is because it has extremely good grip properties, and this would be needed to vertically hold the instruments. Additionally it has flexibility, this is also extremely important because although the average pen diameter has been taken into account there are most definitely pens that are thicker than this average and to accommodate for these objects the flex is needed. Liquid silicone rubber is a very low viscosity silicone which enables it to be injection moulded. Liquid in the name describes the difference in consistency when compared with gum based silicone products. In its raw uncured form, LSR is mixed using two parts liquid, after the mixing process it is then heated; this accelerate the curing process. Making it dry quicker and reducing production time. The advantage of using LSR is that it can easily be injection moulded, whereas the traditional gum based silicone is compression moulded – this means a much higher quality product is produced. There is a large range of different hardness’s available; LSR’s hardness is measured using the durometer scale, specifically the Shore A 30 for my product.

Stationary Ergonomincs & AnthropometricsStationary ErgonomincsAfter the basic concept was discovered, it was time to get into more detail about what types of object the tidy would be able to actually tidy. A datasheet was produced of the most popular pieces of stationary currently existing on the market, an average size was devised. After discovering there was a large difference between the smallest diameter and the largest a new design tweak needed to be implemented. This is where the four inner spikes gained 2 rings each. These protruded slightly more than the spike itself and allowed for even smaller objects to fit in perfectly. This now solved the problem of the eradicated average.

Stationary type Dimensions

PEN - Parker JotterPEN - PentelPEN - Sharpie StainlessPEN - uni-ball gelPENCIL - STAEDTLER HBPENCIL - HB RED PENCIL - uni-ball KuruPENCIL - DerwentSISSORS - StaplesSISSORS - SureSafeSISSORS - WestcottSISSORS - School SissorsRULER - Q ConnectRULER - HelixRULER - Helix FoldingRULER - Flexi

17.7 x 3.7 cm14.8 x 2.6 cm13x x 3.4 cm14.6 x 1.3 cm15.8 x 2 cm16.2 x 1.6 cm14.6 x 1.3 cm16.4 x 1.2 cm8.2 x .8 cm15.7 x .6 cm17 x .8 cm15.7 x .7 cm33.2 x 3.8 x 0.6 cm16 x 3 x 0.2 cm33.2 x 6 x 8 cm34.8 x 5.7 x 0.3 cm

18 g8.2 g19 g9 g5.5 g8 g9g8 g43 g52 g48 g39 g21 g9 g42 g20 g

Weight The perfect width for precise measurements was 51mm, combining this information with a general idea of the products scale, this finalised dimensions. There needed to be some form of grip. After materials research, and looking into charts regarding grip it was clear to see that silicon was the perfect material. This would provide grip to the product and with the anthropometric data a set width had also been discovered.

CostingIn order to receive a quote a large amount of information was needed along with the modelling files which is to be expected when dealing with quantities of 100,000 pieces. Upon submitting this information I received a call a few days later from Protomould. They explained to me that my design was too large for their machine because too much LSR was being used in each individual piece. This was then modified and an updated part was sent over. I then received another call, presumable because I hadn’t stated I was a student in order to get a quick reply in which I was told that the tooling cost would be £7,556. On top of this an extra £193,000 is needed in order to manufacture 100,000 pieces. Then £333 is needed in order to setup the lot of production.This leads me with a final price of £200,889, which is £2.00889 per piece assuming 100,000 are manufactured. This quote assumes that the de-cals have been modified into the design of the mould when injection moulding and that no printing onto the product is required. This means that every time the product is obtained by a new company for their specific logo a retooling cost of £7,556 is payable. It would be a cheaper alterna-tive to standardise the injection moulding and to print onto the product. I received a quote form a silicone printing supplier on Alibaba of £4782, which was one of the only printing services I could find that would give me a quote as they normally only printing on silicone wristbands. I was told it was considerable more due to the complex nature of 5 locations of branding and because of the angles of the printing.

GA

17

9

60

60 17 R4.5

0

10

38.

50

7

20°

12.

80

27.

10

50

+ -0.03

0.03

R2

R1.50 R1.50 R1.50 R1.50

R4.50

3 3

51

+ -0.03

0.03

R7.05

R7.05

51 R7.05

51

R7.05 51

+-0.030.03

TRUE R2

DIMENSIONS ARE IN MILLIMETERS

DEBUR AND BREAK SHARP EDGES

MATERIAL:

REVISION

TITLE:

DWG NO.

SCALE:1:1 SHEET 1 OF 1

A3

Liquid Silicone Rubber (LSR)

6

GADeskPal

ProtoLabs Advise Global Tolerance of 0.025mm +/-