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Readings for “Product design for
safety” seminar 15 Feb 2016• Most products one can buy are the result of an engineering design process:
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engineering_design_process
• CPSC case study in product recall: section 8.11 of this document “Buckyballs”.
• With the above document in mind, check out the links that come up under
Google™ search for “Buckyballs”. Think about what U.S. regulators could do or
should do about this situation.
• I mean to use ATVs as a case study in the seminar. Find out why so many thousands
of people, mainly young men and children, are killed or paralyzed by ATVs each
year… and what is being done to improve matters?
• Case study: PVC. Is it good, or evil, or what? Burning leads to formation of some
of the most carcinogenic chemicals known. What do you propose we should do to
help prevent this nasty chain of problems?
• The secret life of the Lift (Elevator), superb video by Tim Hunkin
• “Safe design refers to the integration of hazard
identification and risk assessment methods early
in the design process to eliminate or minimise the
risks of injury throughout the life of a product
being designed. It encompasses all design
including facilities, hardware, systems,
equipment, products, layout and configuration.”
• https://www.comcare.gov.au/preventing/preventio
n/safety_in_design
Threads
• A small number of people die or are seriously injured each year, and make headlines; cause celebre.
• A large amount of nearly invisible harm is also caused but goes unnoticed; out of sight, out of mind.
• Engineers make choices that affect both the few and the many. What drives them?
• Greed, stupidity and vested interest. Share price is up.
• I love audience participation so will ask you to think creatively
http://www-mdp.eng.cam.ac.uk/web/library/enginfo/textbooks_dvd_only/DAN/design/why/why.html#top
http://www.abcoffice.com/guillotine-paper-cutters.htm
http://www.bladerunners.com.au/page1001.html
Engineering – isolate user
from hazard
Substitution – blade shape
changed
Engineering – isolate user
from hazard Er, none?
Shopping cart
http://www.expedit.eu/Food-
Retail/Products/shopping-
trolleys/Family%20shopping/Child%20seat
http://caitlinshappyheart.com/2014/06/sho
pping-trolleys-for-multiples.html
Shopping cart injuries
• http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Media/Documents/Res
earch--Statistics/Injury-Statistics/Public-
Facilities-and-Products/Shopping-Cart-
Injuries-Victims-5-years-old-and-younger/
• Maybe 5000 serious head injuries from falls
per year in the USA, about half from the
basket and half from the seat
Shopping cart design response
http://caitlinshappyheart.com/2014/06/shoppin
g-trolleys-for-multiples.html
http://www.hubert.com/is-
bin/intershop.static/WFS/Hubert-HubertUS-
Site/Hubert/en_US/images/na/4/1/9/41915_300
.jpg
http://arc.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/shoppingcart4.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/gO6Tg65tmUY/hqdefault.jpg
For each of these designs, think
about
1. whether previous injury will
actually be prevented;
2. whether there may be new
hazards;
3. whether there are financial or
operational consequences.
Success stories
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beverage_can
“Into the 1970s, the pull-tab was widely popular, but its popularity came with a significant
problem, as people would frequently discard the pull-tabs on the ground as litter, or drop
them into the can and risk choking on them.
Pull tab
invented 1959
Design progression
• http://hubpages.com/food/The-History-of-the-Beer-Can
• http://www.stollemachinery.com/en/september-2006-brief-history-beverage-easy-open-end
Case study: ingestion of “stay tab” part
• http://hkcem.com/html/publications/Journal/2009-4/p265-266.pdf
• It seems the thin aluminium alloy used does not show up on X-rays!
https://en.wikiped
ia.org/wiki/Elevat
or
The secret life of
the Lift
(Elevator),
superb video by
Tim Hunkin
Steel spring
Cast iron lever arms
Cast iron pawls
• “In 1998, it was estimated that approximately
eight millionths of one percent (1 in 12
million) of elevator rides result in an anomaly,
and the vast majority of these were minor
things such as the doors failing to open. Of the
20 to 30 elevator-related deaths each year,
most of them are maintenance-related…”
https://www.reddit.com/r/dan
gerousdesign/?count=25&afte
r=t3_3ks0pp
Sweet,
anyone?
http://www.texaschildrensblog.org/2012/08/small-magnets-causing-serious-injuries-death-in-children/
• “The CPSC issued a safety alert in 2011, but the ingestion continued because children thought that Buckyballs looked like candy, and older children tried to mimic tongue piercing by placing them on their tongues, thereby resulting in accidental swallowing of the magnets. At that point the CPSC ruled that warnings could never be effective because once Buckyballs are removed from their packaging, there is no longer any warning about their use.”
What would you do?
• Relatively small numbers of deaths
• Porous customs boundary & fairly ineffective
recall
• Magnets are out there and are going to be both
played with and eaten
• Emotive, politically charged issue
Table saw
http://fcir.org/2013/05/16/power-tool-industry-circles-the-wagons-as-disabling-saw-injuries-mount/
• “Each year, more than 67,000 U.S. workers and
do-it-yourselfers suffer blade contact injuries,
according to government estimates, including
more than 33,000 injuries treated in emergency
rooms and 4,000 amputations.”
• http://www.fairwarning.org/2013/05/after-more-
than-a-decade-and-thousands-disfiguring-injuries-
power-tool-industry-resisting-safety-
solution/#sthash.7DeKdoPl.dpuf
What would you do?
• Ten amputations, or more, every day in the
USA alone
• Not a super common type of tool since mainly
for the commercial or hard-core-hobbyist
carpenter
Saw-stop table saw videos
• http://www.sawstop.com/table-saws/by-model/professional-cabinet-saw?gclid=CjwKEAiAw4e1BRDfi7vghaWU9jESJACzo9juO66BLGQsBbQOimVDLXh2mL-STNFj1wT0sCz9zunUzhoCVz3w_wcB#videos
• http://www.sawstop.com/table-saws/by-model/professional-cabinet-saw?gclid=CjwKEAiAw4e1BRDfi7vghaWU9jESJACzo9juO66BLGQsBbQOimVDLXh2mL-STNFj1wT0sCz9zunUzhoCVz3w_wcB#videos
Sawstop CNS175-SFA30
$1800 from Amazon.
Cartridge $69
JET 708494K JPS-10TS
$1300 from Amazon
Old school with no
electronic stop feature
• “The industry is also trying to keep the
Consumer Product Safety Commission from
requiring injury reduction systems on all table
saws—either SawStop or something similar.”
• http://www.fairwarning.org/2013/05/after-
more-than-a-decade-and-thousands-
disfiguring-injuries-power-tool-industry-
resisting-safety-solution/
• “Federal data from the Centers for Disease Control indicate that between 2007 and 2011, an average of 62 children age 14 and under were accidentally shot and killed each year. But our analysis of publicly reported gun deaths shows that the federal data substantially undercount these deaths.”
• http://everytownresearch.org/reports/innocents_lost/
What would you do?
• Relatively small numbers of deaths
• Very common designed object – guns
• Super emotive, politically charged issue
Gun safety
• Procedural
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_safety
• Mechanical
• RFID http://www.zdnet.com/article/new-gun-
design-uses-rfid-to-boost-safety/
• Biometric http://www.intelligun.com/
• Dr Steve Teret of CIRP
Objections to biometric handguns REF
• “How many fire codes allow fire extinguishers that require a battery to operate?”
• “One shudders to consider the possible tragedy if a policeman had to reboot his handgun, or had problems authenticating, during an altercation with an active shooter.”
• “When incomplete safety features are introduced with fanfare, people have a habit of relying on them, creating a human vulnerability that leads to accidents.”
• “Many smart firearms safety devices currently
in development boast a battery life of two
years, five years, or even ten years. All designs
have integrated notification systems like beeps
or indicator lights to notify the gun owner that
the battery should be checked or replaced.”
• https://smarttechfoundation.org/faq/
God Bless AmeriNRA
• “Within days of announcing he would carry the [smart] gun, Andy Raymond of Engage Armament in Maryland discovered the NRA had launched an intense counter-campaign against him and people started sending him death threats. Ultimately, these groups do not want to see the NJ law triggered and have resorted to bully tactics to force Raymond to back down.”
• http://www.engadget.com/2014/05/12/smart-gun-explainer/
Insidious but huge causes of injury
• We think of products, maybe, as small objects
made in factories
• But everything produced by humanity could be
called a product...
http://tuoitrenews.vn/international/15949/china-tells-pilots-to-improve-landing-skills-to-
deal-with-beijing-smog
“Studies by the World Bank, WHO, and the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning
on the effect of air pollution on health concluded that between 350000 and 500000 people
die prematurely each year as a result of outdoor air pollution in China”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/10555816/Chinas-airpocalypse-
kills-350000-to-500000-each-year.html
PVC burning
• “PVC is a poison plastic. It has earned the title after decades of harming our health and environment. PVC's destructive toxic life begins with manufacturing, continues during product use, and then creates devastating pollution problems when it is disposed. I cannot think of another product that is so destructive throughout its entire life cycle as PVC.”
• http://chej.org/wp-content/uploads/Documents/PVC/bad_news_comes_in_threes.pdf
http://www-mdp.eng.cam.ac.uk/web/library/enginfo/textbooks_dvd_only/DAN/design/why/why.html#top
http://orig01.deviantart.net/3523/f/2009/260/6/e/corporate_greed_by_acidfaithless.jpg
Opioid pills
http://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
“Illicit fentanyl might be contributing to recent increases in drug overdose deaths involving heroin.”
• “ From 2000 to 2014 nearly half a million persons in the United States have died from drug overdoses. In 2014, there were approximately one and a half times more drug overdose deaths in the United States than deaths from motor vehicle crashes (4). Opioids, primarily prescription pain relievers and heroin, are the main drugs associated with overdose deaths. In 2014, opioids were involved in 28,647 deaths, or 61% of all drug overdose deaths; the rate of opioid overdoses has tripled since 2000.”
• http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6450a3.htm?s_cid=mm6450a3_w
What would you do?
• Large number of deaths of productive
members of society: not “junkies” but ordinary
folks with blue-collar and white-collar jobs.
• Becoming better known but still not in
proportion to the harm caused
53
Project Brief – Current Devices
A current tamper-proof pill
dispenser that retails for $844.95,
from [3]
Bulky
Expensive
Not tamper-proof
A current tamper-proof pill
dispenser that retails for
$589.95, from [3]
JHU ME Senior Design Final Report 2015
Graphical Representation of
Project Output
JHU ME Senior Design Final Report 2015 54
FINGERPRIN
T SCANNER
STEEL CAP
ELECTRONIC
HOLDER
SERVO
MOTOR AND
DISK
CARTRIDGES
PILL EXIT
LOCKING
MECHANISM
2 1
3
4
5
6
8
7
55
Tamper-resistant pill dispenser
List of parts:
1. Fingerprint scanner
2. AC charger port
3. Steel cap = separation between
pills and electronic components
4. Electronic holder
5. Cartridge holder
6. Cartridges
7. Pill exit
8. Locking mechanism
8.5”
JHU ME Senior Design Final Report 2015
Detecting babies in hot cars
• “On average, 38 children die in hot cars each
year from heat-related deaths after being
trapped inside motor vehicles. Even the best of
parents or caregivers can unknowingly leave a
sleeping baby in a car; and the end result can
be injury or even death.”
• http://www.kidsandcars.org/heatstroke.html
What would you do?
• Relatively small numbers of deaths
• Very common designed object – cars
• Emotive, politically charged issue
Schematic of experimental setup to check
whether a baby could be detected.
(a) CO2 cylinder
and regulator
CO2
(b) Volume flow
indicator
(c) CO2 sensor
SE-0127 K-30 CO2 sensor fan and sensor.
ATV
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All-terrain_vehicle#/media/File:Four_wheeler.jpg
http://onsafety.cpsc.gov/wp-content/uploads/ATV-Safety-InfographicEnglish650X6200.jpg
What would you do?
• All those injuries and deaths!
• About 3000 road deaths in 2012 c.f. about 700
from ATVs.
• Mainly in farming states which are very much
about personal freedom. And guns.
• There’s no problem here. Go study something
else.
SAE Baja
• Somewhat international competition, mainly
USA engineering students
• Strict rule set defines roll cage and engine
• 40 years of competitions, millions of hours of
track time, and no fatalities.
• The secret? The roll cage and four point
harness. That’s all.
Helmet detector (JHUMESD & CIRP
2012-13)
• Helmet wearing is thought to prevent about
half of all deaths while riding ATVs.
• So the thinking was: invent a system that shuts
down the ATV unless a helmet is detected.
Features
• IR Transmitter and Receiver on ATV
• 100Hz pulsed signal
• Polarizing reflectors on helmet
• Differential circuit to detect return signal
Helmet Recognition Block Diagram
Figure 11: Helmet Recognition Concept Animation
IR TransmitterHelmet Retro-
ReflectorATV IR Detector
Alert
69
Max
Range:
~2.5 Feet
Team R.I.D.E.; Johns Hopkins University Mechanical Engineering Senior Design. May 8, 2012
A creative idea to help deal with the
torrent of Buckyballs• What if…
• There was a cell phone app for parents.
• If any product hurts a child, or causes a near miss, the parent could take a snap of the product & its packaging (esp. bar code).
• Users could also submit pictures of items found on line or in stores.
• Some reward might be given for useful submissions.
• A crowdsourced service, behind the scenes, would try to categorize submissions.
• New hazards would be seen faster and new channels of entry would be spotted faster.
• Bentham’s panopticon
The opposite of Buckyballs...
regulators gone mad?
• Has Kavi told you about his research into
motorcycle helmets made in third world
countries?
• Few, or none, are certified to U.S. standards.
• That’s unsafe, isn’t it? The factories that make
them should be shut down, shouldn’t they?
Final remarks
• The elevator – so ubiquitous – got serious
design attention & investment. The lift is now
safer than the stairs.
• The collaboration of engineering students and
public health researchers can be very potent
because the students can afford to prototype
technology that affect only a few tens of
families each year.
Final remarks
• Some serious product design related safety
hazards can be laid at the feet of engineers
who did not consider every kind of end user, or
every stage of the life of a product. My
answer? Better education.
• My thanks to CIRP, to Kavi, to Sue, to all our
colleagues, for this chance to speak to you
today.
Appendix: Home “space heaters”
http://www.nfpa.org/research/reports-and-statistics/fire-causes/appliances-and-
equipment/heating-equipment
53,600 home fires in the USA from all causes in 2011 alone
Appendix: Window blinds
• http://www.rospa.com/campaigns-
fundraising/current/blind-cord/
• Rather slow moving video but it does show a
rich selection of designs that are safer than the
usual looped cord venetian blind:
• https://vimeo.com/141160650
Appendix: Window blinds
• “After a 30-year delay in which several hundred children have died or been injured, the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission has launched a new effort to ban window blinds with potentially hazardous cords.
• “I don’t know what the issue is, other than greed,” said Elliot Kaye, the CPSC Chairman in an interview to be broadcast tonight on ABC News' "World News With David Muir" and "Nightline".
• Kaye says the window blind industry has used lobbyists and public relations campaigns to resist efforts that began in 1985 to address the risks of blind with accessible cords.
• “The industry has done an excellent job,” Kaye said, “of working the system to keep the government off its back.“”
http://abcnews.go.com/US/30-years-hundreds-deaths-injuries-push-window-blind/story?id=35026540
