Final presentation

Today the product was introduced to the big audience in the exposition from D4E1. We had some great comments and responses. Because some of the visitors where interested in the product for personal use, you can also contact us at the email address knielap2014@gmail.com if you also want  a personal knee pad. If there is a handy man in you, then the full instructable you can find at this link.

We also want to thank Feline and her family for the warm welkom every time we visited to test prototypes and for the collaboration. We are happy that we could help a person with such great personality and perseverance.

If you want to know more about Feline, she got her own blog page called “my MS, my strength” that you can visit on this link.

instructable

The full instructable is available at: http://www.instructables.com/id/Kneeguards/

prototype 52: antislip

The house where the knee protector will be used has a lot of slippery floors, for that reason we began to search for an anti-slip solution. A latex mixture was found that was sold in 4 colors: pink, yellow, green and orange. This gave us the freedom to to whatever figures we want on the fabric.

Elements of experience:

Positive expected:

Positive unexpected: dries faster than expected, very detailed when using a plastic shape

Negative expected: you must have a spatula to spread it properly

Negative unexpected:

Time:5min needs to dry for half an hour depending on how thick your layer is

prototype 51: photoshoot model

This model was made for the photoshoot on 15 may.
Here are some photo's of how it is made. The used techniques you can find in the previous post (prototype 48-50)

Elements of experience:

Positive expected:

Positive unexpected: the blind stitching to secure the opening is a ideal finishing touch

Negative expected:

Negative unexpected: the closing with the pushbuttons isn’t ideal, it gaps open

Time:15min

Perstext + groepsfoto

Hoewel ze op haar jonge leeftijd de diagnose kreeg, heeft Feline, 17jaar, nooit opgegeven van er tegen te vechten. Ze helpt graag mensen maar deze keer mochten wij haar helpen.

Omdat het moeilijk en vrijheidbeperkend is om met een rolstoel in huis rond te bewegen, gaat ze rond op haar knieën. Ze gebruikte hiervoor kniebeschermers van vloerleggers om drukwonden en blauwe plekken op haar knieën tegen te gaan. Deze beschermers waren voorzien van een plastieken sluitband die in haar been sneed en snel afbrak.

We kozen om een knielap te maken waarvan de banden uit een rekbare stof bestonden en verder van de knieholte verwijderd was. De knielap wordt bevestigd aan het boven en onderbeen doormiddel van BH sluitingen, de lengte van de banden kan dus ingesteld worden naargelang Feline kiest om het over een broek te dragen of rechtstreeks op de huid. Door het nemen van een knieafdruk konden we een opmaat gemaakte vulling produceren die ervoor zorgt dat de knielap minder breed uitvalt dan de universele kniebeschermers. Door de knielap uit stof te maken is er een optie om de vulling eruit te halen en het geheel gewoon in de wasmachine te leggen om het weer proper te krijgen. De stoffen zijn zo uitgekozen dat deze ademend en vocht opnemend zijn zodat deze zo aangenaam mogelijk zit bij het dragen.
Het uiteindelijke resultaat is een elegantere, kleinere knielap die comfortabel te dragen is en op de maat van haar knieën is gemaakt.

New sewing techniques: Sewing new binding prototype 50

When tested by our client, elastic band where not so comfortable. They pull to hard and are too rough on the skin.
For that reason we took the same elastic fabric used in the mid-part, this one is softer and less pulling than the elastic.

The problem now was how to sew this in a proper way.

50a: with an elastic line

Elements of experience:

Positive expected: keeps its elasticity

Positive unexpected:

Negative expected: takes long to sew, can only be done by hand

Negative unexpected: it comes lose very fast

Time:10min

50b: with sewing machine

When prototype 50a was taking to long, the idea came to use the sewing machine while pulling the band to its maximum. By putting the machine on a loose knot and pulling the fabric, the fabric is loosely bind together.

After a second tryout I got all the parameters wright and it became a piece of cake.

Elements of experience:

Positive expected: it keeps it elasticity to it maximum that I can pull

Positive unexpected: no damage on the line when pulled

Negative expected:

Negative unexpected: is quite exhausting to constant pull the fabric

Time:15min

New sewing techniques: Sewing it together prototype 49

Now we are going to sew the two parts of prototype 48 together.

Elements of experience:

Positive expected:

Positive unexpected:

Negative expected:

Negative unexpected: very difficult to sew the bra-closures on, they must be turned a little when sewed on 

Time: 20min