Charette 2

The aim of the activity was to take apart an appliance and analyse the parts in terms or material, weight and perhaps manufacturing process, as well as transport costs. So in essence we were looking at the appliance and calculating the life costs of the product as well as the environmental impact of manufacture, usage and disposal. Eventually we would conceptualise a ‘new’ product with a smaller cost around it, in terms of material, shipping etc.

The appliance we got was a Breville Iron, while taking it apart it is interesting to see the number of components that go into such a simple, everyday product and that how complicated it really is. Considering the large number of components, it was clear that one clear aim was to reduce the number of parts required. It was also apparent to us that the spray function was probably unnecessary because the iron had a steam jet to begin with, so that was an area we considered early on. The largest and possibly the component that had the largest environmental impact was probably the heating element and conductive plate for ironing. These components are pretty integral in the product so that reduction of parts in that department was somewhat limited. Also, there were a large amount of fixings, screws etc. these required labour during assembly, and that also adds to the costs that go into the product. As a result we decided that the product could be assembled without any fixings at all, everything would be clipped on and this would reduce the number of components because they could be designed into the moulding of the product rather than ordering in a large number of screws in order to assemble the product. Our final design involved removing a large number of parts and components, mainly the spray mechanism, where that does not seem to be a necessary feature of the product, as well as eliminating the use of fixtures. The end result seemed to look more like a traditional iron, which I guess is the most basic form it can take. All the extra features are really not required for ironing a piece of clothing.