Welcome to the Aimant Project, a self-directed design story that takes place over several months of inquiry and progress. I’ve included in this page many of my discoveries and insights along the way. My aim is to show the software and skillsets that I employ in product design and development. This project chronicles my journey from problem to research and from inspiration to execution. It has been an incredibly rewarding challenge.

-Matt Gross

“There must be a better way…”

The power cord was a once-necessary feature that, over time, has chiefly become a constraint both for user experience, storage and appliance designers. Battery science and charging capabilities have accelerated in recent years toward materializing the future of power cord obsolescence with major implications for design.

Technical Research

Electric car battery technology utilizes high-efficiency, high-output mobile energy sources.

Wireless charging has become increasingly powerful/ versatile.

Looking to start with the most challenging appliance (due to its larger power requirements and high degree of complexity relative to the other appliances) I chose to begin my research with the hair dryer. My immediate instinct was to remove the power cord from the hairdryer and explore battery-powered solutions. After searching for existing cordless product solutions and patents, I was unable to find any viable efforts from the industry.

I then researched the power requirements of the typical hairdryer and cross-referenced those with modern battery capability. I determined the hurdles for innovation had simply been historical battery inadequacies. This insight encouraged me further! Being able to revisit dated product solutions with emerging technology always provokes a fascinating challenge. Bearing in mind that we live in an era marked by rapid technological advancement, I feel compelled to design for the future of that technology.

Due to the advent of the smart device and commercial enthusiasm in the electric car sector, battery science is making staggering advances in both storage capacity and overall battery lifetime. New advancements (though many are not yet commercially available) are redefining our notions of electro-mechanical appliances and opening a new world of cordless technology to the design fields.

According to experts in emerging battery tech, it is becoming possible to charge a battery 50 times faster than previously possible, and to make batteries 30 times smaller. New methods have also emerged to create batteries that are basically infinitely rechargeable. In addition to battery developments, new, powerful, and efficient wireless charging and the standardization thereof, are lowering manufacturing costs and widening the spectrum of cordless appliance possibilities.

30 second charging technology is creating new possibilities for large power requirements.

Avant-garde battery tech like this foldable battery show exciting horizons for design applications.

Concept

I poured through industrial design history to understand the origins and improvements of the hand-held hairdryer since its creation in 1920 as well as similar advancements in adjacent appliances. At this time, I began to search for inspiration in aerodynamic form factors of the turbine, aerofoil, and fuselage. With these as my guiding design principles and an understanding of the technical requirements, I set out sketching and ideating to determine what features could be reconsidered, improved or eliminated. I quickly realized that a folding or collapsible design could provide a dual purpose of further reducing the dryer’s footprint while stored but also create an intuitive orientation for charging on a base. I began to hypothesize that an elegantly designed hairdryer, while charging, could be worthy of remaining visible- and even proudly displayed on the bathroom counter top.

Assembly Research

Before honing some aesthetic elements while sketching, I dismantled the original hairdryer that set me on this design challenge (with my girlfriend’s permission, of course) so that I could understand both its assembly, parting line rationale, and the internal positioning of its various mechanisms and components. I took careful notes during the disassembly because I wanted to arrive at an early iteration with a firm understanding of its requirements in order to eventually create a prototype model from my home 3D printer.

Sketching

I began the sketching process as freely as possible with very sci-fi influenced form factors. As i sketched, I began to refine and streamline the model while considering individual features and aesthetic cohesion with a charging base.

Modeling

The product of dozens of hours of trial, error, and iteration in Rhino 3D and SolidWorks was a model that featured the desired contours of the aerofoil with light-catching surfaces of the fuselage and wind turbine. I crafted the model so that it looks equally elegant regardless if it was in use, folded, or charging between uses. I designed soft grip features to the handle to double as removable panels for assembly and button interface. I created a tapered form for the handle base so that it would aesthetically integrate into main housing when collapsed and charging. The sliding button was created with a raised horizontal bar to communicate the direction of its actuation. The charging base essentially became the inverse geometry of the main housing. This enables a natural fit for the hair drier while charging and ensure a proper charging orientation. It came to feature a scratch-free fabric interior that protects the hair drier’s polycarbonate surface. I envisioned charging base sharing the similar specifications as the popular Google Home such as hydrophobic and antimicrobial polyester/nylon coating. Overlapping ‘lips’ and annular snap fits were added to the rear mesh and main housing to insure a tight but impermanent fit for prototyping. Stationary pegs provide the axis upon which the handle hinges. The rear intake side of the hairdrier was intentionally created larger than the front exhaust in order to accommodate airflow restriction around the handle bay inside the main housing and narrowing the airflow chamber for increased output force.

Google Home Texture Inspiration for Charging Base

Prototype Modeling

With the careful planning during component research and CAD modeling, I endeavored to materialize a prototype to gauge the accuracy and compatibility of a first round of components including the handle interface buttons and the axis upon which the handle/main housing rotate and if the wiring would successfully cross between the two without impeding the folding function. I exported the solid models of individual components from Rhino with adjusted mechanical tolerances in hopes of getting tight assembly and a satisfying ‘snapping’ together of components. I sliced the files in Cura 3D Slicer and printed them from my home ‘Ender 3’ 3D printer. With many failures, revisions, and re-calibrations of the printer and model geometry, i was able to achieve a model of outstanding fidelity. Delicate sanding, painting, and hand finishing created a crisp showroom-quality prototype.