普象-让好设计发光

The scope of this project was to design a leafblower for the Husqvarna professional battery series of tools. So apart from all the technical and performance requirements, it needed to look like it was in the family of the already existing battery range. There were a bunch of common parts and cues used from other battery projects to help tie the range together. Ergonomics was key from the start. To complicate matters, the reactionary force of the leafblower when active made the centre of gravity dynamic when the product started and when the cruise control regulated different speeds. After some trial and error of fast models, we had three rough ergonomic concepts with the controller and battery in different locations to test out.The development team was pretty tight from the beginning and I think it was one of the most efficient and fast teams I've ever worked in, not to mention the most enjoyable. Open to ideas and working with a great 'can do attitude' from the beginning.There was a bunch of talented engineers involved in the project including, Andreas, Christian, Tobias, Pär, Tor just to mention a few. So kudos to all. I can't begin to say how much it was a pleasure to be on that team. You can find Christian and Andreas here > se.linkedin.com/pub/andreas-levander/4b/b05/59a/en se.linkedin.com/pub/christian-bylund/5b/377/a10/sv All surfaces by Tor Sigurdson, the master of Catia. Graphics developed by the masterful Edwin Li here on behance. 

comparrison in size between two of the competitors with one of the early sls models. Quite frankly - it wasn't even a competition on which was the more agile. The Husqvarna was streets ahead.

So the first big change to the project we went through was to reduce the sound. The first prototype was 3 decibells over our target. From the research that Christian did with users in central Europe we knew that sound was the crucial factor for users and also for bystanders. An interesting insight showing that we were designing not just for people who bought the product, but for everyone that has to live with the sound of it being used as well. We spent an extra 3 months trying various inlet shapes, volumes, offsets, thicknesses etc... beofre we got the sound to the right level. In fact the lowest on the market.

The second large change was near the end of the project, we were told that we needed to add visual differentiation between models in the range. So we got togther and smashed out ideas on how we would do it with integrity and add real value to the machine and not just trim.  After lots of discussion we had some workable ideas quickly thrown up on a whiteboard, with full benefits, tooling and rough cost considerations, not to mention what we could in the time allowed. Naturally these are not the sweetest sketches, but I think it's a great example of what a team can do when dropped in at the deep end.

finished final prototype.

Quick render in showcase

  http://www.husqvarna.com/se/products/battery-series/536lib/  

Promotional video for the blower!