Buggy Box
Status – Closed (pending further work)
Introduction
A competition is always something to stimulate me enthusiasm to create something new and this was one of those competitions. The baby products association run a competition annually to solicit innovations from anyone willing to enter for products that have a relevance to the baby products industry.
Mrs g7kse offered up the challenge to try and win the ??1000 prize. Consider the gauntlet thrown I said and so I decided on trying to maximise the potential earnings. It’s all very well throwing money at ideas and the thought of spending ??10,000 to make ??1000 had entered and rapidly left my head.
I decided on a product that would protect a stroller / buggy / push chair when travelling through an airport. So the product specification went something like this
Aims
1. Protect the push chair from impact damage usually associated with luggage in aircraft holds.
2. Resemble a suitcase – no radical design
3. Be car transportable – not to take up valuable -boot space
4. Affordable – Target price of ??30-40 if it was to be retailed
Report
Stage 1 – Fag packet design
The competition was split into 3 steps, a paper submission that told a panel about the product, a dragon’s den style interview and then a final 4 finalists to go to the NEC and present their products at a trade show.
In order to keep costs to an absolute minimum a very quick CAD drawing was done to give a representative sketch and a foam board model was knocked up in the blink of an eye. The first model is below in figures 1 and 2
|
Figure 1 – foam board buggy box |
Figure 2 – foam board buggy box alternative view |
These photos and a brief description was sent in at a cost of ??0 in material costs. To my astonishment I was invited to present at the dragons den a week or so later. Oh eck! time for a very quick model and stage 2….
Stage 2 – Dragon’s Den
This needed a bit more thought, so I pinched my sisters old knackered pushchair and used the remaining foam board in the garage top construct a full size model. It took a couple of hours to make with the complex curve being a pain to cut and secure. Final thing was to cover it in left over fabric from one of Mrs g7kse’s little projects…don’t ask. Figures 3 and 4 show the rather delicate model off in all its ahem….glory. thanks mum for sewing the covering on.
|
Figure 3 – Top hole |
Figure 4 – inside, a knackered buggy |
After a long drive down to the middle of nowhere and with Mrs g7kse 2 weeks from delivering little miss g7kse I spent 20 minutes presenting this to a panel of bored people who asked a few questions on marketing and stuff like that, to which I answered as best I could. A week later I had the call, you’re through to the next round…’Bollock’s’ I thought, now I have to spend some money
Stage 3 – Fibreglass and the NEC
Thanks to CFS fibreglass I scored ??62 worth of fibreglass matt (450g), Resin, plastic pots and some tongue depressors and Partco supplied me with ??16 worth of body filler and paint. Let the games begin.
1. Rip off mum’s hard work.
2. Cut the foam board model in half, lengthways
3. Mount on a piece of plywood
4. Cut up lengths of fibreglass.
5. Start glassing the inside of each half of the mould allowing for a lip on one of the halves
6. realise that there’s no mould release on the board and its starting to creep with the heat from the curing
7. Leave it all overnight to go off
8. Tear off the foam board that has stuck to the fibreglass. this shouldn’t take more than 4 hours each! note to self -do things properly in future.
9. Smooth car body filler onto the exterior surfaces, sand and paint in nice ford fiesta blue.
10. Chop the handles and wheels of a ??10 suitcase from the local cheapo shop and fix them on. Hey presto ready for the finals. Add ??5 magnets on the bottom for car topping just to add a feature
11. Almost forgot, have a baby in the process, not me but Mrs g7kse, turn your word upside down and feel rubbish from lack of sleep
Figure 6 – Voila, the finished item on its display stand – click the piccy for the blurb
Further Work
Maybe just maybe I’ll make a proper one if I get the time, how about in carbon fibre! email me for more information if you’re interested
is the buggy box back in production yet, I have had an enquirery