The sketch model of the pulley/slide design. There are five drawer compartments - three on the top that drop down on a pulley system and two on the bottom that slide back and forth.
The idea is that the user would slide the bottom shelves around to create a hole for the top shelf to descend through. The top shelf is operated by a pulley and counterweighted by the user to reduce weight strain. |
By creating a sketch model of the pulley/slide system, a slew of practical issues were highlighted.
1. The system was far too complicated. There needed to be fewer parts, for manufacturing reasons and usability. 2. Expecting the user to properly counterweight the pulley system was unreasonable. A new locking/safety mechanism would need to be designed. Inventor Renderings of the pulley/slide design.
Left: The two bottom drawers are slid to the back to allow the front top shelf to descend. Right: The two bottom drawer are slid to the front to allow the back top shelf to descend. |
After seeing how the sketch model worked in real-life, we had to go back to the drawing board with new design considerations.