Facing the first job as designer is always hard,  the lack of expertise in the field turn us a little bit nervous. In this World Industrial Design Day, I want to remember my first approach to this exciting but difficult profession, long ago there in 2012. This job came from a colleague  who were mold machinist. To return the favour of recomendation, I focused my  efforts to make the product for injection mold, as main technology rather than others with less primary investment for an emerging product like this one. The customer wanted to reinstall the habit  of disposable cutlery supports for normal use at restaurants or even home.

First concepts

The customer wanted something related with Celtic style or close to the templar swords. After some meets, I was able to make something more abstract. Focusing the shape to get more stability, leaving the figurative aspect to mere sustractions.

After going back and foward some times, negotiating with the mold provider, I made two final proposals:

Then, due to mold  improvement and final piece cost, the customer choose the small proposal.

 

Disposable Cutlery Supports – Mold Making

The file adjustments were mainly about min radius over the edges and creating the partition line to facilitate the machinist work.

The mold contains four cavities  and here are some pictures of the  machining process.

Ejecting the pieces by plate instead of using ejector pins.

As a result, a few samples  in PP to test the overall function.

As designer I always enjoy to folow the manufacturing process, specially with my own projects.

being the first one as freelance, was encouraging.