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Protective Earplug Designed for Water Activities

Hansson, Anders LU (2012) MMK820 20122
Innovation
Abstract
This report is a result of a Master Thesis in Mechanical Engineering with Product Development at the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. The Master Thesis was performed during the spring of 2012 at Frankly Development in Malmö. Frankly is Product Creation Company with great knowledge in developing consumer electronics, sports equipment and other type of products.
The thesis was initiated by Claes Lundin and Christian Dittrich at Frankly and is based on an idea of a product innovation. As avid surfers with a background in various watersports, Lundin and Dittrich have experienced many of the problems that spending time in the water can cause. One of the most common and also returning issues are ears-related. The most frequently used... (More)
This report is a result of a Master Thesis in Mechanical Engineering with Product Development at the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. The Master Thesis was performed during the spring of 2012 at Frankly Development in Malmö. Frankly is Product Creation Company with great knowledge in developing consumer electronics, sports equipment and other type of products.
The thesis was initiated by Claes Lundin and Christian Dittrich at Frankly and is based on an idea of a product innovation. As avid surfers with a background in various watersports, Lundin and Dittrich have experienced many of the problems that spending time in the water can cause. One of the most common and also returning issues are ears-related. The most frequently used way of preventing these problems is using earplugs. They block water from entering the ear canal and as a side-effect, they also block sound, which in a situation like this is unwanted. The suggested innovation is an earplug design specifically for water use, that doesn’t affect hearing noticeable.
The purpose of the thesis is at a first stage to investigate the business opportunity of the new type of earplug. The second phase of the project includes developing and designing an earplug with as little attenuation as possible and to meet the rest of the demands of the market.
The method used during the project has mostly followed the Generic Product Development Process presented by Ulrich and Eppinger (2008).
In order to evaluate the opportunity the most influencing factors were looked at and analyzed. These included determining the demand of the product, mapping customers, a patent search, estimating market size and looking at different scenarios of sales figures. To complement the evaluating a SWOT-analysis was performed.
The development process started with identifying the needs of all stakeholders, resulting in specifications to serve as the basis for the concepts generation. Once the concepts had been generated, a selection process was carried and one concept was deemed to be the most promising, and was further developed. Prototypes were built and tested to verify the function and fit of the earplug. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Hansson, Anders LU
supervisor
organization
course
MMK820 20122
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Product Development, Earplug
language
English
id
3224391
date added to LUP
2012-12-05 10:59:01
date last changed
2012-12-05 10:59:01
@misc{3224391,
  abstract     = {{This report is a result of a Master Thesis in Mechanical Engineering with Product Development at the Faculty of Engineering, Lund University. The Master Thesis was performed during the spring of 2012 at Frankly Development in Malmö. Frankly is Product Creation Company with great knowledge in developing consumer electronics, sports equipment and other type of products.
The thesis was initiated by Claes Lundin and Christian Dittrich at Frankly and is based on an idea of a product innovation. As avid surfers with a background in various watersports, Lundin and Dittrich have experienced many of the problems that spending time in the water can cause. One of the most common and also returning issues are ears-related. The most frequently used way of preventing these problems is using earplugs. They block water from entering the ear canal and as a side-effect, they also block sound, which in a situation like this is unwanted. The suggested innovation is an earplug design specifically for water use, that doesn’t affect hearing noticeable. 
The purpose of the thesis is at a first stage to investigate the business opportunity of the new type of earplug. The second phase of the project includes developing and designing an earplug with as little attenuation as possible and to meet the rest of the demands of the market. 
The method used during the project has mostly followed the Generic Product Development Process presented by Ulrich and Eppinger (2008). 
In order to evaluate the opportunity the most influencing factors were looked at and analyzed. These included determining the demand of the product, mapping customers, a patent search, estimating market size and looking at different scenarios of sales figures. To complement the evaluating a SWOT-analysis was performed.
The development process started with identifying the needs of all stakeholders, resulting in specifications to serve as the basis for the concepts generation. Once the concepts had been generated, a selection process was carried and one concept was deemed to be the most promising, and was further developed. Prototypes were built and tested to verify the function and fit of the earplug.}},
  author       = {{Hansson, Anders}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Protective Earplug Designed for Water Activities}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}