To satisfy an urgent request from one of their customers, Prince Castle enlisted DiMonte Group to develop an improved grill scraper.
Challenge
- Protect employees from burning hand on upper grill
- Improve cleaning quality and reduce damage to grill surface by insuring proper blade angle throughout stroke
- Use manufacturing process with low tooling investment
- Unit compatible with existing blade sharpening process and tool storage bin
Development
After exploring the problem with 2D sketching and 3D models, a flexible test rig was constructed to evaluate ergonomics. As the design progressed, durable models were produced to prove concepts in restaurant tests.
Design for Manufacture
Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software was employed to develop strong geometry that satisfied the ergonomic, functional, and aesthetic criteria.
Quick Response to Change
Near the conclusion of the project the customer mandated a change from a disposable blade to a re-sharpenable one. The scraper had to be altered to fit several existing blade sharpeners without any adjustment in deadline.
Prince Castle Received two patents for technology developed during this project:
US6871377B2 – Grill Scraper
USD523198S1 – Grill Scraper
