The biggest issue of the CU Make-a-thon last weekend for our team was solved before we even met up! Jill had a product idea and a hand-drawn 3D render of the product, which, after some discussions with the team, would ultimately come to be known as the GrippingBean. It draws on the functions of ‘Fat-Gripz’, a pair of cylindrical sleeves that thicken the diameter of a barbell or a dumbbell so as to recruit more muscle fibers when using them. We like to think of the Gripping Bean as a grip-thickener that would aid people with hand-tremors or severe arthritis as their hands are bound to be shaky and are prone to dropping items with thin handles, like a spoon or a toothbrush, or even the handle of a teacup! The benefits of having an industrial design major on the team were countless, as Jill also created an initial CAD model of the bean though Fusion 360.

We realized that our prototype was thick enough o defeat the purpose of a comfortable grip, so the following class, we printed out a smaller version with lesser curve around the edges to make for a more compact feel, although none of us were in class to get a glimpse of the finished 2.0 prototype. Vishal was kind enough to give us some flexible filament, which we hope to use through some of the bigger printers in the FabLab and we are totally looking forward to our next session.

Our initial model