Modular washroom appliances 

A well established, public washroom appliance supplier based in Trafford Park, recently called upon the expertise of a Chamber member, PR Designs, a product design consultancy from Stockport, to design for them a new range of prestigious washroom appliances. The brief was to design an all stainless steel, modular system that could be adapted to fit in a variety of combinations.

Working closely with their client, PR Designs produced a product design that incorporated a hand paper towel unit, an automatic warm air hand dryer unit and a large 25 litre capacity waste bin.

Because of the modular design, the towel and hand dryer units can be easily swapped or replaced to offer a hand dryer/towel dispenser or duel towel dispenser and bin arrangement. This, the company says, will give them the edge over their competitors who mainly offer all-in-one units.

Commenting on the design, Philip Ridgway of PR Designs said that the most difficult aspect of the whole project was to produce the units with no visible external fixings, this they achieved by some cunning innovative design. The combination units are typically fitted to washrooms in office blocks, visitors centres, museums, hotels and the like, so have to withstand a minor amount of vandalism. The all brushed stainless steel construction and the lack of obvious fixings makes them relatively resistant to attack whilst keeping the design lines sleek.

To aid their client further, PR Designs produced fully specified 2D engineering drawings and arranged for the sheet metal prototypes to be made. This led to the subsequent manufacture of the units. “To complete the whole package we produced comprehensive fitting instructions and arranged for fellow Chamber members, Remploy, in Oldham to assemble, package and stock the finished units”, said Mr Ridgway

PR Designs is a design consultancy that believes in listening to what its customers want and offers a complete product design service utilising the latest 2D/3D CAD software and over 20 years Mechanical engineering, Industrial and Product design experience. (released to press August 2005)

PR Designs info@prdesigns.co.uk