For my final year design project at university, I challenged myself with rethinking the way in which skis are waxed. There were two essential aims that I set in the Product Design Specification...
1. The design must tackle current user pain points from waxing skis
2. The design must offer a more sustainable approach to waxing skis than current methods
WAX1 is the first cordless ski iron which aims to offer DIY waxers and ski mechanics the ability to save the 5000 tonnes of paraffin wax waste produced each year.
Housed within the product's modular design is a scraper and brush.
Through the innovative scraper design, the wax can be collected in the scraping process removing the users pain point of cleaning up and instead giving them the opportunity to recycle the wax and reuse it on the next base wax.
Research into wax loss and current ski irons
Extensive primary and secondary research uncovered key insights including...
- user pain points of the power cable being in the way and cleaning up mess
- sustainable and functional issues with competitive products
- wax waste being around 50% of the quantity of wax applied
Sketch development and prototyping
Final Tests of fully functioning prototype
Exploded view
Fully functioning prototype Programming an Arduino Nano allowed me to build a fully functioning 1:1 scale prototype capable of waxing multiple pairs of skis on one charge.
Sustainability was considered throughout the entire design process and improved on its competitors with regard to material choice and quantity, power usage, and wax wasted.
Product Renders
Grey Version Renders
