DailyDirt: Interesting Designs For Common Items

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Mon, Jun 16th 2014 5:00pm — Michael Ho

A lot of products have been revolutionized by relatively simple re-designs. Velcro. The spork. Sometimes it's little changes that make a big difference. And sometimes there's just too much of a barrier to overcome for old designs to be replaced, no matter how much improvement could be gained. Here are just a few designs that you might see more often someday.

Airlines are always looking for seat designs that can squeeze a few more passengers into their planes, so how about a two-level armrest design that avoids some elbow room distress? This design doesn't make the middle seat any more desirable, but it's a nice concept for skinny airplane passengers, at least. [url]
Gull-wing (or Falcon-wing) door designs are so 1980s. The 1990s spawned the disappearing car door design. A disappearing car door would have been so much cooler on the next Tesla model, right? [url]
Fire hydrants are normally just boring pieces of outdoor plumbing, but a re-designed fire hydrant could make public water outlets into more efficient fire-fighting devices. However, more expensive, proprietary fire hydrants might not stand the test of time. [url]

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Filed Under: airplane seating, armrest, design, disappearing car door, fire hydrant, innovation
Companies: jatech

15 Comments

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Lawrence D�Oliveiro, 16 Jun 2014 @ 5:12pm

Gullwing: That�s 1950s, not 1980s
Gullwing doors were first introduced with the Mercedes-Benz 300SL in 1952. You know why? Because it was a space-frame design. And the more holes you cut in a space-frame (for pesky things like doors and windows), the weaker it becomes. So they came up with this compromise door design that didn�t require as big a hole as a conventional swing-door.
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Whoever, 16 Jun 2014 @ 6:55pm

Fake
You know the disappearing doors are fake, right?
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Pixelation, 16 Jun 2014 @ 7:58pm

Sedation
Why not just start sedating everyone on the plane? That way you could stack 'em thick without complaint.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2014 @ 12:17am

Re: Sedation
But then how am I going to catch up on the movies that my partner isn't interested in watching?!
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2014 @ 4:20am

Re: Fake
Source?

The video looked like a pretty convincing prototype.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2014 @ 4:31am

Re: Fake
Looks pretty real to me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUSYk9o7dEI&feature=kp
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Justin, 17 Jun 2014 @ 4:57am

Car Door
The disappearing car door isn't fake. It was a concept designed by Lincoln back in 1993. What they don't show you in this video is the equipment necessary to move the doors, which takes up about half of the trunk space.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Jun 2014 @ 5:07am

Re: Sedation
Just think of the fun baggage handlers would have.
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nasch (profile), 17 Jun 2014 @ 7:48am

Re: Car Door
What they don't show you in this video is the equipment necessary to move the doors, which takes up about half of the trunk space.

That's too bad, because that thing looks awesome. Might even be worth giving up half a trunk. Koeniggsegg has great doors as well if you haven't seen those.
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John Fenderson (profile), 17 Jun 2014 @ 9:07am

Re: Car Door
Electric motors have become much more efficient since then. It might be entering the realm of practicality now.
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allengarvin (profile), 17 Jun 2014 @ 10:32am

Is it safe?
You'll be losing that side B-pillar, or at least its connection to the frame. Can it stand up to side-impact collisions? There might also be some structural issues in roll-overs, though I guess no worse than convertibles currently face.
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nasch (profile), 17 Jun 2014 @ 11:10am

Re: Is it safe?
You'll be losing that side B-pillar, or at least its connection to the frame. Can it stand up to side-impact collisions?

That might be an issue with a retrofit like in the video, but if a car were designed with these doors from the beginning, it would be no problem. Look at the Mazda RX-8 for example. It has the same large door opening with no B-pillar as these cars, it's just with conventional doors.
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Whoever, 17 Jun 2014 @ 11:14am

Fake
Think about the fact that the door has a glass window, which means that the door cannot bend (also, doors have to have structure to resist impact, latch properly, etc.). Now think about:
1. Where is the bottom of the door, when the door is half down?
2. If that doesn't convince you, think about where the middle of the door is, when the door is half way down?
3. If that doesn't convince you, take a look under your car and ask yourself if there is room to stow a door under there.
4. The sills provide much of the structural integrity of cars. This "door" appears to require complete removal of the sills.
5. And finally, if this door system is so wonderful, why are there no videos with actual news reporters looking at the doors? Why are the only videos made by the company that claims to make this door?
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nasch (profile), 17 Jun 2014 @ 11:20am

Re: Fake
Shut up, it's cool! ;-)
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Giles Byles, 17 Jun 2014 @ 2:08pm

Creeping hyphenitis
No hyphen in redesign

No hyphen in firefighting

But looks like gull-wing can't fly without one
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