KP 360 – Still working on it… Krysta H.

As of right now my group is a little bit of everywhere. It feels like there is so much that needs to get done and its hard to focus on everything at once. We’ve gathered information regarding materials, marketing, data test values, amongst other things. Right now a major thing that is driving me crazy is organization. Throughout our class work times I have created countless documents, but now I’m starting to feel a bit overwhelmed. For the second time we have updated our prototype, but now that we have gathered different data directed towards flexion and rotation values to prevent knee injuries we hope we can start heading towards our last prototype before our final design.

Last class I think we made a major break through as a group. I think it can be easy to procrastinate things you don’t want to do, but I think that a change of scenery really did my group well. Today in the Maker Space we were finally able to start answering questions and move forward on the state of our prototype. For quite some time now we have contemplated what and how we going to test for in our prototype. We have decided after continuous research on the sport of roller derby and interviews that our main design, the KP 360 will focus mostly on reducing force on the knee. This really helped my group to look ahead and get a better idea as to hat our final design will look like.

 

Originally we were planning to do some sort of 3D printing to create support systems to prevent rotation in the knee. As you can those plastic pieces are represented by spoons. But as we put more thought into our product and researched some more we decided that it would be better to research one aspect of our design really well rather than have multiple components that are poorly supported by fact. Even after our visits from Grit and Bullet we were able to learn that most roller derby players are worried about force of impact rather than rotation issues.

 

 

 

 

During our class time, as a group we have decided to split the group between a few categories that include marketing, data test values, materials, research an working on the prototype. By now I’ve just accepted the fact that there is never too much time for research. There is always something to be learned. In our marketing compilation we have successfully established a name and colors for our product, our slogan, target audience, customer needs and important statistics, We even plan to include relevant personal stories from customer interviews and different types of diagrams.

 

 

 

 

 

 

For our data test values we have decided that once we have updated our prototype we will test the skin surface temperature of the knee under the knee brace during exercise, the maximum range of motion for knee extension, and how much force can be acted on the knee.  We have done prior research so our main goal is to determine whether or not our knee brace is effective.

Ultimately we have decided that our main materials will include Polyester Cotton and EVA foam. Having this blend of materials is crucially important because it combines the most important aspects needed in a knee pad. Polyester dries quickly, doesn’t shrink and is very strong. Cotton is cool, absorbent and comfortable and ages well. EVA stands for Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate. EVA is a soft, flexible foam, that will allow the roller derby player to move around easily and be comfortable to the player. EVA foam has a high chemical makeup, and is a crosslinked foam, which means it is more durable and stable than most foams. The foam is soft and stable, so upon landing on the foam, the player will be protected, and won’t feel as much of a painful force when landing.

Overall I think these last few days in class have been pretty successful and now that our DAP presentations are suddenly a lot more real, I am hoping that my group will pick up the pace to make sure that both our design and presentation is well thought out and supported by research.