A dustpan vacuum attachment that standardizes the process of cleaning up debris, helping make homes everywhere cleaner and safer
In my Manufacturing & Design Capstone, my team's dustpan vacuum attachment, Cleanr, was initially created to standardize the process of picking up broken glass. We saw that people used a variety of cleanup methods—from a broom and dustpan to a wet paper towel to a slice of bread—signaling a great opportunity for our human-centered design process.
Through interviews, building a custom environment for benchmark and mockup testing, and optimizing our design for injection molding, we created a ready-to-manufacture product that simplifies the process of sweeping up debris. Cleanr has an internal vacuum channel and an LED, ultimately helping make homes everywhere cleaner and safer.
Northwestern University // Manufacturing & Design Capstone
September 2019 – July 2020
Zach Shonfeld, Harcourt Allen, Jack Eichenlaub, Lucas Pagni
Project/Team Management / Rapid Prototyping and Testing / Design Communication (verbal and written)
Takeaways.
As my first experience taking a consumer product from concept to manufacturing, I was able to truly immerse myself in the problem and focus on empathizing with the end user in each step of the design process.
Through writing weekly status reports, I also strengthened my design communication skills and learned the value of frequently taking time to analyze and reassess my team's progress to make sure we were utilizing the insights we were forming as effectively as possible.
If you are interested in learning more about our design process, feel free to explore the project details below!
For homeowners and retail employees alike, there is no standard, comprehensive method to clean up broken glass.
My team and I conducted 13 user interviews with homeowners and local restaurants to better understand our problem space and the users/stakeholders' experiences with broken glass.
We constructed a testing environment with three different removable floor boards.
This 5’x5’x5’ space provided a place to benchmark test 9 different methods used to clean up broken glass. And after brainstorming and conducting a student focus group, the testing environment was utilized to rigorously test our own mockups and prototypes.
We aimed to combine effective cleaning methods and strategies together to create one standard debris cleaning process.
Vacuum
The dustpan acts as a vacuum attachment
LED
An LED helps identify debris
Disposal
Safely transporting all debris to the trash
We iteratively tested and developed our concept, creating and analyzing four main prototypes before arriving at our final concept.
Through this analysis, in addition to the standard dustpan shape, our solution brought together three functionalities:
1. Vacuum
2. Illumination
3. Disposal
Each of these capabilities helped us achieve our goal of standardization - consolidating the stages of the cleanup process so only one product is needed, instilling trust that the user has cleaned up all debris effectively and safely.
While developing Cleanr, I led the design and testing of the LED subsystem.
Optimizing Wavelength
I tested 16 wavelengths to identify the optimal wavelength for detecting shards of glass (highlighted image).
Reverse Engineering
I researched LED varieties and deconstructed four products that utilized different LED and battery types, to then reverse engineer an LED system for Cleanr.
Integrating in Cleanr
The final LED system – a COB LED, Li-ion battery, and a transparent colored acrylic filter to match the previously-identified optimal wavelength – was integrated utilizing a custom housing at the back of the dustpan bed (seen in below section).
Partial spectrum of light wavelengths tested
No filter vs. Teal transparent colored acrylic filter
The dustpan vacuum attachment was then optimized for injection molding, so it could be in houses everywhere.
The design was optimized by making the wall thickness consistent throughout, conducting mold flow analysis and a comparative analysis of molding costs, and solidifying assembly features.
We also utilized a Fortus 380 (FDM) 3D printer and a Connex 350 (Stereolithography) 3D printer to produce a high-fidelity prototype of Cleanr, as seen in the provided images.
Cleanr was born.
Our team obtained a provisional patent for Cleanr, approved by the USPTO.
We also entered our product for the 2020 James Dyson Award. For part of the submission, I created this video describing our design process, the Cleanr's functions, and how to use the product.
In addition to the video, our team created five images to submit for the James Dyson Award, including this graphic depicting the functionalities of Cleanr.