The Tool Seniors NEED!



Hi Visitor, In Design & Engineering Unit 1 we focused on how daily uses like public transportation, cars, and other essential tools that we take for granted aren't designed for the use of Seniors. We read an article about how the population of seniors is only going to rise, so it's better that we start designing with seniors in mind. Before this upcoming action project was presented to us, we learned classes of levers, math concepts like soh-cah-toa, vectors, and the Pythagorean theorem. This was also met with articles that talk about aging and the things that come with it, like weakened muscles and aging bones, so we can further empathize with the seniors. For this action project, we were asked to make a garden tool that is tailored to a senior gardener. The preparation for this was an interview with a senior gardener, so we could identify the common problems that seniors are having and possibly solve them. I interviewed a farmer; even though it’s a more extreme version of gardening, they could still experience similar problems or even go to another level. The person I interviewed essentially said that overworking your body could cause damage to it in the long term, and you should listen to your body. I took this into consideration in the making of this project. My tool is called the "B Planter." The problem I found that the original bulb planter tool had was that the tool stressed your thumb joint extremely, which isn’t suitable for seniors. Also, consider the possible strain on the back it could cause if you wanted to plant multiple bulbs in one gardening session. I fixed both of these problems by making the bulb planter automatic in a way. All you need to do is put the bulb planter into the hole on the top part of the tool, then press the button the tool has and make sure that you put minimal pressure on the tool to make a hole in the ground, and lastly press the release button to plant the bulb. This tool would be classified as a Class 3 lever because all of the load is at one end of the tool while the effort is at the other. It’s more technologically advanced than other bulb planters because most bulb planters are manual and you need to bend and strain in order to use them. You can use my tool without bending your back substantially. The tool would also be considered a wedge since it is portable, and the goal of the wedge aligns with the tool since it separates a portion of an object, which is the dirt. The diameter of the "drill" part of the tool would be 7 inches since bulbs don’t need that large of a hole, with the length of the drill part being 6 inches. This makes the volume of the drill part 230.79 cubic inches.

The sketch of this project was

 

K.J, 2022, Sketch of Bulb Planter 




K.J, 2022, Refined Sketch of Bulb Planter 

 I learned that making a design is really hard to make anything original or even improve things.  I think the easiest thing for me was remaking my sketch digitally since all I had to do was place lines.  What was difficult for me was trying to find a tool to improve in the first place since every agricultural tool seemed as if it was already refined and essentially perfect or usable enough for seniors.  I looked for more tools that use your hands to open them besides gripping the tool since I know arthritis or lack of feeling in hands is a big problem. I looked for more tools that use your hands to open them besides gripping the tool since I know arthritis or lack of feeling in hands is a big problem. If I wanted to do things differently I would do a 3D design of my tool. 




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