Yu Tao
Spiral baby highchair
Being considered essential among parents of newborns all over the world, baby highchairs are used for feeding toddlers aged from 1 to 3 years with a more comfortable and stable posture. This spiral baby highchair treats parents and their children as target markets and improves the experience of use from assembly to feeding.
Being extracted from the initial research as pain points, the adjustability of accessories including the whole highchair, the tray and the footrest, and the storage status are two feasible aspects to improve. Inspired by the elements related to the main style of an active and creative home, this product is supported by the main screw, which connects all the accessories by the dynamics of rotating. Additionally, when all the parts are adjusted to their lowest, the spiral baby highchair can be transformed into a decorative table that can add vibrancy to the customer’s home.
The seat and the backrest are curved circular plates that make it looks like pancakes when closed, but more importantly for sitting comfort. To be in line with the wooden elements of this style of home, most of the highchair is made of European beech wood for their excellent bending capabilities. Thus, in addition to cutting for shape, another technique called steam bending is also needed for making the curve. And then these wooden parts can be milled for fillets. The red screw is injection molded with polypropylene due to its high flexural strength. Different from the traditional adjustment of height, the height of the highchair itself and the accessories, referring to the tray and the footrest, can be adjusted by rotating along with it.
This design contains 10 types of components that are simple enough for the buyers to assemble themselves. The main screw and the seat board are welded together. The seat backrest is connected with the seat board by three folding hinges with the maximum angle of opening to be 135 degrees to fit the ergonomics of the child sitting position during eating. For the legs, there are partial sloping surfaces on both ends, which allows them to splay at 14 degrees, calculated to best support the highchair. As for the tray, there are extensions on both sides, which are just right for children to put their arms on. Besides, the partly raised edge made by a sander is to protect the dishes from falling. When assembling it, the tray fixture, contains two ball bearings at both ends, allowing the tray to move on the same level for the convenience of parents feeding their children. To adjust the height, hold and rotate the fixture lids to make the tray move along with the red screw. When in use, parents can adjust the position of different accessories or even remove them as they like. Since the target market is toddlers aged from 1 to 3 years old, the seat height of this product ranges from 75 cm to 1 m.
Yu Tao's designs
Student Biography
As a mix of rationality and emotionality, PDM makes me able to use manufacturing skills to realize my abstract ideas. It is the opportunity that I can have to improve lives with creativity that attracts me most to this discipline. Instead of raising numerable innovative concepts, I prefer the process of refinement and focus on the details of production. I love visualizing my ideas through Solidworks and Keyshot because they can produce the most realistic effect that gives me a sense of accomplishment.
I am fond of the presentation of a final design, which makes me passionate to share the results with team members and clients. Additionally, I am a well-organized and people person, these characteristics make me good at communication and delivering ideas. Therefore, for my future career, I would love to try to be a product manager, to become a bridge between users and creativity.