Determinator + Determinator design box, design FROM recycling
The Determinator was designed within the context of an IWT/Vlaio tetra project, entitled "Design FROM Recycling", within a consortium of material engineers (UGent), product developers (UAntwerpen) and different companies (including recyclate material owners, material processors and design agencies). The aim was to apply knowledge to support the development of better and more sustainable products from recycled plastics. To achieve this, one of the goals was to translate the obtained material characteristics of these recyclates into something that could inform and convince industrial designers to consider these recyclates as a material opportunity within their designs.
Research questions.
The Determinator was designed in order to achieve the following research questions:
- how to design specifically with and for recycled polymers?
- how to generate design experience with new recycled polymers?
- how to translate the material characteristics into understandable designer knowledge?
- how are the specific recycled polymers perceived on an user-centered perspective?
One of the outcomes of the projects is the Determinator, a hands-on tool or material sample for evaluating a material's technical characteristics. The Determinator was designed specifically to give industrial design engineers, product designers, interior designers,... the opportunity to tactile experience new material characteristics and building up confidence to apply them in their research. The object supports the material t(h)inkering next to technical datasheets, focusing on exact numbers.
Impact.
The box and its Determinators is available for €250 at https://www.uantwerpen.be/en/projects/design-from-recycling/
The Determinator box will be further used (at University of Antwerp) in follow-up projects, such as the PhD project of Lore Veelaert "User-centered material selection", the graduation project of Elise Ghekiere " Material Library" and the EPS-project "Material Tinkering: a material sample kit for sensorial experiences". Within both universities the injection mold will be further used for other thermoplasts to achieve a comparison of materials and to tactile express characteristics.
The Determinator box is currently used to underpin classes on material characteristics and designing with materials both at UAntwerpen and at Ugent. Moreover, the department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design of UGent, campus Kortrijk, are interested to include the box into their classes as well.