Designed to fulfil a number of functions the VMC Pole™ will be used for mounting VMS equipment as well as traffic monitoring and enforcement equipment. However the design can be extended to other applications and can be both upscaled and downscaled depending on need.
The VMC Pole™ delivers significant cost savings over fixed posts, removing the need for lane possession and additional safety and access equipment when maintenance is required.
A new and innovative design, already nominated for three industry awards. The pole’s first implementation will be on a managed motorway scheme in the UK.
VMC Pole

The Project
Atkins Global working with Balfour Beattey approached us at Crown International with a custom design project for the Welsh Assembly. The Welsh Assembly was planning a regeneration of a section of the M4 in Wales. As part of this project they wanted a product that would hold a variable message sign over the motorway, but allow the sign to be maintained easily.

Currently the products they had available to them were:
• A gantry, which is expensive to purchase, but once installed any maintenance that is required on the sign is cheep, due to minimal traffic management.
• A fixed pole, which has a low purchase cost, but when installed if the sign needs maintenance two lanes of the motorway would need to be closed, which means high traffic management costs and large disruption.

So they wanted a product that would take the positives of both of these, they wanted a low-medium cost product that would allow minimal traffic management and disruption if a sign needed to be maintained. On top of this they wanted a product that would also look better than both of the current solutions, The Welsh Assembly are know for wanting a product with a high quality look, feel and finish.

We approached this project open minded, using the experience the company has in its manufacturing team, and the creativity of the design team. We developed a huge number of concepts that we presented to the clients. The product that interested them the most was a pole that would be able to rotate away from the motorway over the verge, and then lower down to ground level to allow access to the sign for maintenance.

When we had settled on a concept, we listed some key issues that we needed to solve.

1. Ensuring correct use
For example we did not want it to be possible for somebody to be able to lower or rotate the sign into the road, so we developed a mechanism that only allowed the user to lower the sign once the pole had been rotated 90 degrees. Along with that the mechanism needed to also stop them rotating it back into the road before it had been raised back to the top.

2. Making it simple
The Welsh Assembly did not want a product that used complicated electronics and hydraulics. So we developed a method of rotating and lowering the pole completely by hand, using Crown International core expertise in counter-balance solutions.

3. Weight
With a product like this where the user has to manually drive it with only gearing and chains to help we had to minimise the weights and forces involved. We did this for example by using an aluminium truss frame, to construct the arm, this made it both strong and light weight.

4. Visuals
The Welsh Assembly was keen for it to look better than any similar product. We wanted the pole to fit in to its environment, but also to stand out to be better looking and a different class from the other products. We utilised some of its engineering features such as it beautifully constructed truss framed arm, and the bearing rails down the side of the pole, but we covered up some of the raw engineering with smooth clean curved cladding to soften the product.

5. Cable Management
With a product like this which moves not only from side to side but also up and down cables can be difficult to route. We developed an automated mechanism that would allow the cables to move with the product allowing the cables to stay connected and safe what ever position the pole was in.

The design is now completed and the first batch has been manufactured ready for installation on the M4 this summer.

The pole was awarded an innovation award at the international traffic exhibition Inter Traffic in Amsterdam this year.

My Role
I was one of two designers that were assigned this project, I was heavily involved from the initial concepts through to the manufacture and assembly drawings. My key tasks included concept and idea generation, problem solving, mechanism design, core structure design, CAD modelling, design detailing, initial FEA/structure analysis, manufacture drawings (including part, fabrication and assemblies), cost engineering, liaising with both customers and suppliers.

New designers was just over a month away from when I finished my final year project, I was given this month to improve and tweak my project.

I chose to focus my improvements in the following areas:

• The Brand Identity
• The Sharps Bin Design
• Packaging Refinements

Brand Identity

The logo for Point Blank on the original design was rushed, I was focusing more on the way that the packaging worked and protected the user, so I decided to spend some time polishing the design of the logo and the packaging. I wanted to create a simple logo that represented the product without words, I achieved this by simplifying the idea of the pack acting as shield from the needle. The pack is represented by the vertical line and the needle by the horizontal line. See the final logo in the gallery at the bottom of the page.

Sharps Bin Design

When i originally designed the sharps bin I focused purely on its function and purpose relative to the needles. I now wanted to consider how the user would interact with the sharps bin, and how the sharps bin could help them do there job and reduce the chance of a needle injury.

I created a sharps bin that would enable the user to carry everything they needed to a patient safely, it would then give them a clean familiar surface to work on at the patients bedside, then it would allow them to discard a needle in a safe and convenient manner.

It was designed in a way that would be completely natural to use. I used the typical kidney tray shape in the top of the bin, this was so it would suggest to them what that part of the device was for.
It has two clear handles to encourage correct handling, and the top surface is tilted forwards so that people do not try and carry it backward. It was important to me that everyone used it in the same way, so that i could ensure that when they got the device to the patient it was orientated in a way that would allow them to safely dispose of the needle.

I wanted the device to feel like a hub for their procedure, so i wanted it to hold and do everything much like a dashboard. I felt i achieved this with the design and feedback was positive from the nurses and doctors i spoke to. The updated version of the bin can be seen int he gallery at the bottom of this page.

Packaging Refinements

There were a few criticisms I received during the validation stage of my product that I want to iron out. These were that the packs could be easier to open, this was not just a criticism of my needle pack, but needle packs in general, and the size of the hard plastic protector could be bigger.

I improved the opening of the packaging by creating two large tabs that the user can grab hold of and peal apart. It was important to me that the pack was easy to open, as my research showed with current needle packaging that if the user could not open the pack properly, they would just burst the pack open by bending it and forcing the needle out the top of the pack. If someone were to do this with my packaging, it would render the protective function of it useless.

I then increased the size of the plastic guard the sheath of the needle offered, this meant however that the packs were bigger, so I made the plastic fold down in the pack, this also would help the pack open into the correct protective shape, by using a clever plastic hinge design. These modifications can be seen in the gallery below.

Health care professionals are at a huge risk every day of contracting life-threatening diseases, one way of this happening is from a needle injury. A needle injury could cause one of many blood-borne diseases including HIV, Hepatitis B and C, all of which are becoming more prevalent in patients each year.

This project looked at why these needles injuries happened by talking to nurses, doctors, NHS occupational heath staff and many other NHS employees. Observations were carried out on hospital wards to see if key areas of focus could be identified. The research revealed many insights, which subsequently went on to inspire the final product.

The concept utilised the insight that the packaging of a needle would be with the nurse/doctor at the time in which they are most likely to get a needle injury. Thus, the packaging was designed to act as a guard to protect the users hand if they ever need to re-cap a needle.

Feedback on the concept revealed that the product could be seen to promote bad practice when handling needles. Further development went into insuring that the product would promote good practice.

This development focused on insuring that sharps bins were readily available on wards. Many concepts were explored and one stood out which achieved this the best. The idea was to pack the needles within a sharps bin, this would now mean that the ward would have enough sharps bin for the amount of needles.

The final feedback from the validation candidates was positive. Here are a series of excerpts “This device could be a real life saver, it works with out any effort from me” said a Gloucester A&E Nurse, “Point Blank is an exciting new project which challenges the way we deal with sharps in the workplace” stated a Southmead Doctor, later adding “The addition of the sharps bin to the project is an innovative and clever way of addressing the delivery of sharps bins to the ward”

The first step of the process involved measuring the current juicer, these measurements were then used to re build the juicer in Solid Edge (a CAD application). Each part was built then assembled and the results can be seen in the gallery below.

The next step was to think about the look and feel of Braun and re design the juicers look to fit, but still keep the basic juicer mechanism.

The results of the re design can be seen in the gallery below, the colours, shapes and materials have been selected to match with one of Brauns current ranges, you can see this in one of the renderings in the gallery. Part of this project was also to increase the mechanical advantage to ensure the elderly could use it, this was done quite simply by increasing the length of the handle.

With new “Chip and Bin” or “Pay as You Throw” schemes coming into play in many councils, the Weigh Bin can help people manage the cost of there rubbish. It displays to them how much in money terms they are throwing away and gives them an estimate of how much that month could cost. This estimate will help remind the user to try and recycle as when the value is high the user will be shocked and try to recycle as much as possible. The larger the estimate is the brighter the display will show, this helps bring to attention the fact that they are throwing lots away, and that it is going to cost them.

I focused my project on the average adult, and developed a concept that took the dentist to the workplace. The idea behind this came because many people fear the environment of the dentist and can find it hard to find time to get to the dentist, so bring the dentist check up to the workplace gives the patiant a familiar environment and means that the do not have to travel to the dentist taking time off work. The company funds this to convince people to stay in work and not take time off to travel to the dentist, as this time off can cost as much as a average check up.

The patient will also pay a small fee to help fund the dentists community work, visiting schools and teaching the children all about good dental hygiene, this community work will help convince the patient to have there check up done as they feel they are doing something good, much like giving blood. This service offers benefits for the entire community, the office saves money as people are off work less as they do not need to travel to the dentist, the patients benefits as they have a more comfortable environment for their check ups and pay less for the check up, and the local schools benefit from education on dental hygiene.

After the success of the first mirror image web site i designed, the company decided it was time for an update to keep things fresh and boost sales. So they set me the task to design a fresher more modern site using the current logo, as this logo had developed quite the brand.

To give it a fresher look i updated the colours and the layout using reflections and vibrant colours to create the fresh modern feel the company wanted.

The site is available to view here

This is the final design of the scales, it a fun looking set of scales that appeals to the whole family, it is fun and friendly for children, simple and easy to use for busy adults and it has a fold out screen that folds up to make the screen closer to the users face this helps elderly people and people with poor sight use it.

This was done using Solid Edge to build them and then Rhino and Flamingo to render them, Photoshop was used to compile the final boards.

This project helped develop my solid modeling CAD skills as well as rendering techniques.