Author Archive for Angelique Hutchison

Consumer power. 50 years of Choice

Published by Angelique Hutchison 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

A display celebrating the 50th anniversary of Choice is now on show in the Success and innovation gallery. The display tells the story of the impact Choice has made in improving standards and product safety, and in consumer advocacy and campaigning. It also takes a sneak peek into what goes on in the Choice testing labs, finding answers to questions like:  is your fridge as cold as you think? Are some everyday food items really what they seem? And how big is a standard load of washing?

Choice magazine August 1961. Courtesy Choice

Choice began in 1960 when Ruby Hutchison and Roland Thorp set up the Australian Consumers Association and began publishing Choice magazine. From a humble beginning testing ‘slimming cures’ and asprin, the membership-funded consumer organisation now has over 200 000 members. It aims to empower consumers to get the most out of all their purchasing decisions through providing both advocacy and advice.

Choice is a major contributor to the safety standards for many products including toys, high chairs, strollers, and cots. Their campaigning resulted in a mandatory standard for cots being introduced in 1997.  On display is a cross bow that didn’t make the market place, probes used to test for entrapment hazards in cots and strollers, and a toy that easily broke in drop testing in the Choice labs, creating a lethal choking hazard for small children.

Testing cots for head entrapment hazards in the Choice labs. Courtesy Choice.

Choice has laboratories for testing almost everything! Trained technicians use rigorous scientific processes to test products according to national and international standards, as well as methods developed in-house to see how they perform in real life situations. Tests rate the various products and services against a range of factors, including performance, ease of use and environmental impact. Independence, impartiality and transparency are very important, and Choice purchases all the products they test.

On display is a custom-made piece of testing equipment, known as the ‘hedgehog’, from the Choice test kitchen. The twelve probes measure the temperature of a piece of food, usually quiche, that has been reheated in a microwave oven. The output reveals how evenly the food has been heated, and if there are any cold spots that have not reached a safe temperature.

The 'hedgehog' testing the temperature of food in the Choice test kitchen. Courtesy Choice.

The important role of the organisation in advocacy is explored through the Bowin heater legal test case. Choice’s power to act on behalf of consumers was recognised by the Federal Court in 1996, when the watchdog successfully defended a defamation case brought by the makers of a faulty and potentially deadly heater. This faulty gas heater was recalled on safety grounds after an article in Choice magazine in 1992 showed that the gas hose could disconnect from the heater and potentially turn into a flamethrower. The manufacturer lost a defamation case against Choice, because the Federal Court accepted that Choice was acting in the public interest. The Court agreed that Choice had a duty to publish the information because it was protecting consumers from a potentially dangerous product. Choice set up this photo for its magazine in 1992 to show what could happen if the hose came loose on the heater.

Photo from Choice magazine, July 1992. Courtesy Choice.

Consumer power: 50 years of Choice is presented by the Powerhouse Museum in association with Choice.

60 years of Caroma

Published by Angelique Hutchison 0 Comments Tags: , .

This year Caroma is celebrating 60 years of manufacturing in Australia. While we may associate the name with toilets and bathroom fittings, the company has been a leader in plastics production since the 1950s. It all began with a plastic syringe…

In 1949 penicillin injections were being used to treat most bacterial infections, but penicillin tended to clog up glass syringes and make them hard to clean. To solve the problem, Austrian immigrant, Charles Rothauser, created the world’s first plastic, disposable hypodermic syringe at his Adelaide factory.

Powerhouse Museum collection

He made the first syringes in polyethylene. However, because polyethylene softens with heat, the syringes had to be chemically sterilised prior to packaging, which made them expensive. In 1951 Rothauser produced the first injection- moulded syringes made of polypropylene, a plastic that can be heat-sterilised. Millions were made for Australian and export markets.

In 1956 Rothauser, renamed his plastics company “Caroma” and began manufacturing bathroom products, including the world’s first one-piece plastic toilet cistern. In the 1970s Caroma made plastic bathroom fittings fashionable with the Bathmates range, available in five colours – red, white, blue, yellow and brown.

Powerhouse Museum collection

Caroma is perhaps best known for developing the dual flush toilet. In 1980, with $130 000 government assistance, Bruce Thompson of Caroma developed a cistern with two buttons and flush volumes (11.0 litres and 5.5 litres). This wasn’t easy because the toilet bowl had to be redesigned to make sure less water could still remove the waste.

Thompson’s Duoset cistern saved 32 000 litres of water a year per household when it was trialled in a small South Australian town. Caroma’s success led to legislation in every state to make dual volume toilets compulsory in new buildings.

Powerhouse Museum collection

In 1994 the company completely redesigned the toilet in stylish porcelain in a modern ‘organic shape’. Its 6 and 3 litre dual flush cistern and matching bowl halved the amount of water normally flushed away.

The Smartflush range designed in 2004, further reduced the flushing volumes to 4.5L and 3.0L and were the first toilets to achieve the Water Services Association Australia (WSAA) AAAA water rating for water efficiency. Five years of research, development and testing of the cistern and pan design were required to achieve effective flushing with minimal water use.

Powerhouse Museum collection

Caroma’s combination of style and environmental awareness has attracted attention in the tough European sanitaryware market and their products are now shipped to more than 30 countries worldwide.

After 60 years, Caroma is still manufacturing some of its products in Australia, with plants in Norwood, South Australia, and Wetherill Park, New South Wales. One Caroma factory makes vitreous china toilet pans and cisterns, the main raw material being clay. The moulds are complex, and the process takes several days, as the wet clay dries slowly and is then glazed and fired in a large kiln. Another factory makes plastic cistern parts, plastic toilet seats, and some plastic cisterns. The processes used for making the plastic parts are injection moulding and compression moulding. For a detailed case study on how Caroma toilets are made and the importance of product quality see the Australia innovates website.

Here’s a sneak peek inside the Sydney factory.

Caroma's Sydney factory. Courtesy Caroma Industries.

Close up of production line. Courtesy Caroma Industries.

Toilets and pans emerging from the kiln. Courtesy Caroma Industries.

World’s smallest ultrasound machine on display

Published by Angelique Hutchison 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Signos pocket-sized ultrasound system by Design+Industry and Signostics. Image courtesy of Signostics.

The world’s smallest ultrasound machine is now on display in the Australian International Design Awards exhibition. The Signos Pocket Sized ultrasound system uses high frequency sound waves to look at organs and structures inside the body. It weighs in at only 300 grams and is the size of a mobile phone.

Doctors in emergency care or remote locations can use it to examine patients quickly and easily. The high resolution screen shows images instantly, and the inbuilt microphone allows doctors to record notes.

Signos pocket-sized ultrasound system by Design+Industry and Signostics. Image courtesy of Signostics.

The Signos is of particular benefit in emergency medicine. It can be worn around the neck like a stethoscope and provides quick scanning and triaging of patients. It can detect internal fluids or trauma or the presence of a heartbeat. The device has potential for use in rural and remote areas where larger, more expensive machines are not available. It is also being used in veterinary applications.

Developed by Adelaide-based Signostics and Sydney/Melbourne-based Design+Industry, the device has been approved for use in the USA, Australia and Europe. Signostics has its global sales and marketing in Silicon Valley, California.

The Signos Pocket Sized ultrasound received the Powerhouse Museum Design Award at the Australian International Design Awards ceremony for its potential to make a significant improvement to the quality of the environment, health or wellbeing. It also received an Australian International Design Award in 2010.

Australians were instrumental in developing ultrasound technology in the 1970s, and the Museum holds one of the orignal UI Octoson machines  in the collection.

Award-winning surfboard design

Published by Angelique Hutchison 0 Comments Tags: , , .

Meyerhoffer surfboard by Modern Longboards, Thomas Meyerhoffer and Global Surf Industries. Courtesy Australian International Design Awards, part of Standards Australia.

One of the products featured in this year’s Australian International Design Awards exhibition is the Meyerhoffer Surfboard. It is a distinct hybrid surfboard design, and behaves like both a longboard and a shortboard. You can stand on the back and turn the board easily like a shortboard, and you can also nose ride on the front like a longboard. Designed by California-based Thomas Meyerhoffer, it was developed in partnership with Australian-based company Global Surf Industries. The combination of the shape of the board and a lightweight SLX epoxy material make for a truly unique product. The board received an Australian International Design Award in 2010.

This board is the latest of several Australian innovations in surfing technology that have been displayed and collected by the Museum. In 1980 the development of the three fin surfboard by Simon Anderson was considered the most significant change in the 80 year history of surfboard design. The development of the FCS removable fin system was a second major innovation in surfboard design.

Another unusual Australian approach to surfboard design and manufacture was the Bambu surfboard designed and made by Mei Yap Gordon and Shale Gordon in Byron Bay. This bamboo surfboard received an Australian Design Award for Industrial Design in 2002 and was displayed at Powerhouse Museum. With a core of polystyrene foam with a covering of bamboo veneer embedded in epoxy resin, it has its primary strength stored in the outer skin resulting in a more flexible board. The weight of the board is distributed away from the centre of the board and it is lighter, faster and more durable than conventional boards. The use of natural bamboo on the exterior reduced the need for extensive use of resin and fibre glass. It also gives the board a natural ‘eco-friendly’ aesthetic.  

FCS H-2 surfboard fins designed and made by Surf Hardware International, Talon Technologies and Metro Solutions, 2004.

In 2005 the FCS H-2 surfboard fins received the Australian Design Award of the Year and were also displayed at the Museum. These fins represented the introduction of a hi-tech approach in what had traditionally been a handcrafted industry. They were a result of a unique collaboration between hydrodynamic and materials experts, manufacturing consultants, world champion surfers and fin makers. The fin has a different geometry than previous fins and is made from a lightweight aluminium and fibreglass composite material. The design was developed using scientific tank flow testing and refined by use in the ocean. This was a new approach to improving surfboard performance by focusing on the design of the fins themselves rather than the shape of the board.

Latest Australian product design on show

Published by Angelique Hutchison 0 Comments Tags: , , .

The Museum’s annual selection from the 2010 Australian International Design Awards is now on show as part of Sydney Design 2010.

Emotiv EPOC by 4design and Emotiv Systems. Courtesy Australian International Design Awards, part of Standards Australia

This year’s exhibition includes a gaming headset that reads brain signals and facial expressions and a pocket-sized ultrasound system. Student concepts including a device that stores a heart during transit before heart transplant surgery and a light tanker used as a fire reconnaissance vehicle in bushfires are also displayed. Ten industry products and six student design concepts from this year’s awards are on display. The Museum’s selection is made from the finalists and is based on good design, innovation and the potential of products to improve our environment, health or wellbeing.

Since 1992 the Powerhouse Museum has been building the country’s first collection of contemporary product design selected from the prestigious Australian International Design Awards. The winning products have been displayed in the Museum and some have been added to the permanent collection of Australian industrial design. Products are selected because they show potential to become important in the life of Australians, be significant to Australian industry or provide an opportunity for Australian design to be recognised in the global marketplace.

The products selected by the Museum reflect the diverse range of entries in the Awards. The first Powerhouse Museum Selection in 1992 included the HPM Fanlight and Surgeguard power surge protector, products that are still in the marketplace eighteen years later. Since then the selection has ranged from simple everyday items such as the Clark sink plug to specialised technologies such as the Mine Site Integrated Communications Cap Lamp. Design for sustainability has been of constant interest throughout the selection, represented by products such as the Kambrook Axis kettle, Rainbank pump controller and Caroma Smartflush toilet. Medical technologies have also featured strongly, from the Bionica ambulatory drug infusion pump to the Cochlear implant.

Décor wine coolers – 1980s Australian product design pt3

Published by Angelique Hutchison 7 Comments Tags: , , , , .

My earlier posts about 1980s Australian product design highlighted some serious and important Australian designs from that decade. Now for something different – something that represents the good times and the rise of a food and wine culture in Australia in the 1980s – the Décor wine coolers.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum. Graphic design by Andy Schmid.

The Décor BYO wine carrier was designed in 1978, but was the beginning of a range of products developed by Décor in the 1980s. It was very different from any other product on the market. It holds two bottles of wine or four drink cans, and the removable chiller can be frozen before being placed between the bottles to keep them cool.

The inspiration for the carrier came in 1978 when Décor founder Brian Davis attended an Australian Design Awards presentation, saw a canvas or hessian wine carry bag win an award and decided that his company could make a better one. The Australian practice of ‘BYO‘ began in the 1960s and dining out and wine consumption became popular in Australia from the 1970s. Prior to this plastic bags filled with ice cubes had been used to carry wine to restaurants. Sounds very messy!

Richard Carlson was employed to design the wine carrier and quickly developed the final design. The wine cooler had widespread success and was winner of an Australian Design Award in 1979 and the 1980 Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design. In 1980 the wine carrier was being manufactured under licence in USA, Sweden and West Germany and continues to sell more than 30 years later.

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Décor decided in 1984 to take the same approach with a different product, the wine cask cooler. The idea for this new product sprang from the changing preferences of Australian drinkers – cask wine was becoming more popular and Décor decided to meet the needs of this new trend.

Again designed by Richard Carlson, over a period of two years, it holds the bag of wine from any four litre cask carton. The design presented many challenges for Carlson. He said, ‘fitting the cask bag into a box was like fitting a dozen pillows into the boot of a car’. However his ability to think in terms of mass, volume and space allowed him to translate an awkward situation into an elegant, useful solution which won an Australian Design Award in 1986. The cooler features a wedge shaped chiller bottle for the wine bag to sit on, this makes it easy to get all the wine from the bag.

This product indicates the popularity of wine sold by the cask, first introduced in the 1960s by Angoves Wines. Usually the cheapest wine available, the bag reduces the air contact with wine so once it is opened it lasts longer than wine in a bottle. In 2009 around 40% by volume of the wine sold in Australia was cask wine. Although now the cask is called a ‘soft pack’ and is often a smaller two litre bag containing the same wine as is sold by the bottle.

Along with the wine cask cooler Décor developed a new wine carrier, ice buckets and picnic hampers as a complete range of products. The company won more than 250 Australian Design Awards over the 1980s alone. In 1984 Richard Carlson was awarded the Design Institute of Australia Gold Medal Award for Industrial Design and Andy Schmid, graphic designer, was awarded a Design Institute of Australia National Award for graphic design. Décor founder Brian Davis, along with designers Richard Carlson and Tony Wolfenden were inducted into the Design Institute of Australia Hall of Fame in 1996.

Pedestrian button – 1980s Australian product design pt2

Published by Angelique Hutchison 1 Comment Tags: , , , .

 

Powerhouse Museum photography. © all rights reserved

The next instalment of my favourite Australian designed products from the 1980s continues on with the transport theme. 

The pedestrian button, found at a pedestrian crossing near you, was designed in 1984. But it is really the product of research and development done in the 1970s in response to public pressure on government.

In 1967 a member of the public asked the NSW Department of Main Roads (DMR), now the Roads and Traffic Authority (RTA), to introduce pedestrian traffic signals he could hear. At a city crossing, the RTA installed some bells and buzzers on both sides. Blind pedestrians were meant to cross when the buzzing sound replaced the ringing. Unfortunately they found that when the bells broke down they sounded like buzzers, which could cause deadly confusion in blind pedestrians.

The next version, installed in 1976, had a two-rhythm buzzer and included a vibrating panel to touch, because many vision-impaired people also have some loss of hearing. This new device was developed by acoustic and vibration engineers Louis A Challis and Associates. It had two different signals for ‘Walk’ and ‘Don’t Walk’, and the sound level was automatically lowered in response to background noise, reducing annoyance to people living near a crossing.

In the early 1980s Sydney consultants Nielsen Design Associates were asked to redesign the device to make it vandal-resistant. The new unit was made from cast aluminium with vandal-proof fixings. The large magnetic button (tested to withstand millions of pushes) is easy to find and push. A Braille arrow on the vibrating plate indicates the direction to cross. Listen to the different ‘Walk’ and ‘Don’t Walk’ sounds here.

More than 25 years later, the pedestrian button is still working well, and has been used in the Middle East, Asia, Europe, South Africa and the USA.

Baby capsule – 1980s Australian product design pt1

Published by Angelique Hutchison 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

P105_2

Collection: Powerhouse Museum

Visiting The 80s Are Back exhibition I wondered: if I had to pick the best in Australian product design from the 1980s, what would it be? A Sunbeam kettle or the décor wine cask cooler? The Stackhat or a Caroma toilet? Perhaps a mop bucket or an early ResMed CPAP machine? The 1980s was a productive decade for Australian industrial designers, and the Museum holds many examples of Australian products from the era. So I’ve decided to bring out a series of my favourite Australian-designed products from the 1980s.

Beginning with an innovation that has without doubt saved many lives – the baby safety capsule. Developed 26 years ago, this product is still one of the safest child restraints on the market. In Australia, babies up to six months of age must use rear facing restraints and new child restraint laws introduced this month recommend that children face the rear of the car until age four. All child restraints sold in Australia must meet strict standards, considered to be some of the most stringent in the world.

Of course safety standards haven’t always been this strict. Wearing car seat belts has only been compulsory in Australia since the 1970s and this is when restraints for children began to come onto the market. Babies were either held in arms or travelled in a traditional bassinet that lay across the back seat, secured by the seatbelt with a protective net over the top. There was no really secure way to protect babies in a smash until the baby capsule was developed in 1984.

Rainsfords (later called Britax Childcare), the makers of the Safe-n-Sound child seat restraint, came up with the idea of the capsule. It consists of a bassinet inside a base that can be secured by a seat belt. A release mechanism allows the bassinet to rotate in a crash, keeping the baby more upright and distributing forces uniformly over its body; at the same time, the bassinet pushes against an impact-absorbing bubble in the base. The capsule was designed to fit in an adult seat space. The bassinet can be removed from the base to carry the baby around outside the car.

The capsule was designed by PA Design (later known as Invetech) with Rainsfords Safe-n-Sound and took five years of research and development. It won an Australian Design Award and Design Council Selection in 1985 and the Prince Philip Prize for Australian Design in 1986. The design was improved by the introduction of a harness in 1991 to replace the Velcro body band on the capsule in our collection.

Stay tuned for the next instalment of 1980s Australian-designed products. In the meantime I’d be interested to know – what is your favourite Australian-designed product of the 1980s?