Team Four Project Reflection

Since the class we met the mentors, we knew we wanted to work with Arielle. We were inspired by the way she made awesome use of her time in this class and really made something worthwhile. Arielle really saw an opportunity for change and improvement and through this class was able to even create a business out of it. We were also excited about the area of opportunity she presented and the idea of potentially helping our U of I  team and her company. After meeting with her and Adam, they explained to us the main problems they have when it comes to racing. They showed us the gloves and how they work in part with the hand ring on the wheel.

They told us the major issues they face is that when it rain, it becomes very slippery between the hand ring and the glove. This causes the athlete a lot of trouble as they can’t get as good of contact between the glove and hand ring. Once the weather conditions become poor, it doesn’t matter how much the athlete trained or how fast they race if they can’t make good contact.  We worked with Arielle and the paralympic wheelchair racers to find a better way to cover their hand rings in preparation for a race.

The other problem they face is the fact that there is no easy way to cover the hand ring. The hand ring is made of aluminum, so they need a cover to create friction as well as protect the athlete from injury. Adam told us of the many solutions he has tried over the years to solve this problem, as there is not a solution that exists on the market. Currently, they use a bike tire which they have to carefully place and glue around the hand ring. This is a daunting process that takes a very long time. The cover lasts for a few months, and then they need to be replaced. In order to remove the cover, they have to either heat it with a heat gun or put the ring in the oven to be able to get the cover off.

After meeting with Adam and Arielle, we were able to formulate our opportunity statement. We decided our goal was to work with Arielle and the paralympic wheelchair racers to find a better way to cover their hand rings in preparation for a race.

Tire Cover
Hand ring with tire cover
Worn down tire cover

Initially, we hoped to solve the challenge of how to help the racers in bad weather conditions. Going into the Makeathon, most of our ideas included creating a cover for the hand ring. After meeting with a materials science professor and tips we received from Milestone Labs, we begun to consider what material might be able to create the best kind of friction with the glove when wet. We considered a snap cover, zipper, fabric cover and more. We purchased a variety of materials including a bath mat and a yoga mat. During the Makeathon, we quickly realized that our materials were very soft and didn’t withstand even minimal testing with the glove. We looked around the FabLab for scrap materials from other groups. We found some nylon, as well as a dip plastic rubber called Plasti Dip. We created this low fidelity prototype using our materials. Since we only had two hand rings, one covered and one uncovered, we had to create sections for each material.

Makeathon Prototype

After testing each section, we found that our most promising solution was to pursue to Plasti Dip. We discovered that there was a spray version available, which seemed to be a good and easy option. After the Makeathon, we purchased a can of the spray Plasti Dip to create another prototype. We used the spray booth in Art + Design to coat the hand rings and the gloves. The spray was so easy to use. We did the recommended three coats, waiting 30 minutes between each and four hours for it to dry. After it had dried, it had created a nice even coat that was slightly sticky to the touch.

Plasti Dip Spray
Hand ring in the spray booth
Dried hand ring

We met with Joey Gibbs from the racing team to test the prototype. Once we arrived at the DRES morning practice, Joey was able to remove one of the hand rings from his chair and attach our prototype to it. The glove we had sprayed was not Joey’s size, so he wants able to test the glove with the ring. However, we did see Jenna, another racer and mentor from our class, and she was able to test the glove for us. After going about 40 feet, the Plasti Dip on the glove started peeling away immediately. We quickly realized this was not a solution.

Worn Plasti Dip glove
Joey testing our prototype

Once Joey was ready to start practicing using our prototype, he quickly realized that the Plasti Dip created the perfect amount of friction between his glove and the ring. It was sticky enough to create a good grip, but not too sticky that it slowed down his stroke. After about five minutes of Joey practicing at a regular speed, we could see that the rubber spray coating was starting to peel away. Even though it was peeling away, it didn’t affect Joey’s speed or efficiency. After about 15 minutes, the rubber on the ring was almost worn away. We noticed that one section of the ring, however, was withstanding Joey’s strokes. Once we took a closer look at the ring, we realized the part that was no peeling was the part that we had coated with Plasti Dip at the Makeathon. This lead us to believe that our potential solution might be stronger if both types of Plasti Dip are used or if more coats are applied. In the end, Joey had found that his overall speed was actually 1 mph faster with our prototype than normal. This was an exciting finding! We think that if the team pursues trying this material in various ways, they might find a solution that is easier and more effective.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vSCPDDCCokGwA8hs1wBHu_bRoGwgRjhVs2W5UG2UGHB3l1FVsAkUVdL-gtAf-c7rRGiOpEtxQq7OQ6P/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=3000

48 Replies to “Team Four Project Reflection”

  1. Hi Katherine,

    Wow this is super cool. To see you guys process and then the end result is amazing. To think that something so simple, could be so useful makes all the difference. I do wonder will any of you be continuing this ? Also I think you guys could expand this a bit more and look into other methods that are adhesive based properties. Overall great job!

  2. Your team’s project was really cool, and the way you went about trying to find a material that could give the athletes more friction seemed very thorough! I used to run track in high school as well, so hearing about the things that you guys were doing for the wheelchair track team really struck a chord with me. Running in rain is never easy – whether you are on a wheelchair track team or a track team with able bodied students, and I’m so glad that you took the time to look through these different options to help them gain a more efficient method of preparing their chairs. I’m not sure about how much friction it would have, but in terms of fabrics, (if anyone on your team is continuing the project) I would suggest looking into clima-cool/waterproof fabrics as these fabrics would not fall apart in the rain. Overall, great job!

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