Katrina Massie

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University of Nottingham > Engineering > Departments > Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering > PDM Exhibitions > 2023 > BEng students > Katrina Massie

An intuitive, detail orientated extendable charging arm, allowing cars to be charged with ease from a user's home supply.

My name is Katrina, my time at university has helped me explore my creativity and combine it with my love of engineering. Having a passion for design, I led illustration and design for UoN’s Surfing Society and ran a sustainability group while undertaking temporary, summer work at GARD UK in 2019.

For myself incorporating sustainable practices into my design process is crucial. As designers we can and should use our role to make a positive impact. In doing so we will help reduce the damaging effect that microplastics and carbon emissions have on our planet. Our slight changes can create huge impacts to the future, and I want my choices to balance the line of design innovation whilst preserving and protecting of the planet we already have.

I enjoy many activities such as film photography, American football, surfing, and stained-glass creation, keeping an active and creative lifestyle helps me interact with the world around me in fun and exciting ways and therefore, pushing my designs, CAD and renderings to constantly grow and develop authentically.

Katrina Massie, BEng Product Design and Manufacture

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Electric Vehicle Charging Arm

The Electric Vehicles (EV) market is rapidly increasing as governments push to reduce carbon footprints and tackle climate change. In this market however, there the is no current at home charging solution for the 33% of the UK who do not have access to off-street parking.

UK Government schemes will lead to the market to exponentially grow over the next decade as the electric vehicle infrastructure scheme ends the production and sales of new diesel petrol and diesel vehicles by 2030. This change in policy, and due to the current state of infrastructure leave members of the public unsure how they will cope with finding charging spot for their vehicles. My project tackles the problem head on by providing private on-street charging.

Wingspan is an extendable arm which lifts the cable out of the way of the public, it can be adjusted to accommodate for any width of UK pavement- allowing users to charge their cars using their home supply. Resulting in the cheapest on-street charging option currently in the UK.

The aims when designing this product was for it to be intuitive, detail orientated and as it resides in the public domain for it to be hidden in plain sight. The product was also created to reduce the environment as little as possible, reducing plastics usage to a minimum, using recycled materials such as aluminium and polypropylene and limiting the number of hybrid parts. The product also used TPE instead of alternatives such as silicone due to its ability to be recycled. Balancing the line of high quality with low cost means the product’s market has a wide reach, as well as a giving a sleek and sophisticated look to its users. From the handle, which challenges the current forms on the market creating a new innovative and exciting element. To the indoor power pod which increases the safety and convenience. Wingspan cares about the longevity, adaptability, and simplicity of its product. By implementing multiple locking mechanisms and features such as a TPE membrane and brushes the design helps to reduce any damage, ingress build up or vandalism of the unit, by the public

The arm unit sits at a total height of 2.7m, with the arm extending to a maximum length of 2.68m, sitting off the ground at 2.4 metres. The main body had been compacted down to a depth and width of 130mm by 150mm retrospectively. The main framework is made from extruded recycled aluminium casing with an injection moulded polycarbonate cover to protect and reduce damage caused by the environment.