Have you ever dreamed about creating a brand new product in the vinyl record industry from scratch? Some of you might have gotten an idea on how to solve a specific issue in the industry but felt it too daunting of a task to attempt. Whether you’ve got an idea for a new revolutionary record player, some kind of accessory that will change how people listen to records, or a new way of displaying records, this post will help.
Meet Ethan, Joe, and Alec. These three guys are biomedical engineers at Tufts University. This past semester they were partnered up in an engineering design process class and had to solve a specific problem related to vinyl records. Here’s what they focused on:
| Problem: College dorm rooms tend to be very small, and students with love for vinyl often can’t display or keep their collections in their room. They also seldom have room for their record player and speakers. |
| Solution: Design some kind of record display case or unit that enables students to easily access records, save space, and enjoy their records in their dorm rooms. It needs to be a cost-effective solution and, at the same time, needs to protect records. |
Keep in mind what I mentioned above is a very brief summary of what their project is about. They went through many levels of ideas, project plans, phases, brainstorming, prototyping, risk analysis, and engineering to get to the point where they can produce the product. It’s no small feat, and these guys methodically recorded every step they took.
Let’s take a closer look at what they came up with solve this issue college students are facing. Here are some images of their first round of project design reviews. For the full presentation on design review #1, go here.
After a rigorous and time-consuming process, they came up with the following proposal for their final design. It’s called the “Clamshell” design and displays records in a circular fashion. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. Take a look at some of their design images below:
At first, you might find it hard to imagine this product displaying records, but now that you have the final design images in front of you, it should be a lot simpler. I can imagine this being used on a variety of surfaces, applications, and even possibly attached to a wall.
When can I see the final product?
After speaking to Ethan and the rest of the team, they told me that their project has unfortunately come to a halt because of COVID-19. Since the pandemic, they had to leave campus early and weren’t able to finish the project.
They recently finished the design and just needed to make a functioning prototype before producing more of our product. Despite some setbacks, they are considering buying materials and completing the manufacturing process. Once that is done, they can start selling their very own BME-Vinyl record display units!
I’m hoping these guys get to launch their product soon and make a massive success from it so that I can blog more about it! Haha, no seriously, breaking into any industry with a new product is no small feat. If you take a closer look at their project, you’ll see the crazy amount of work they did and how meticulously they went through each phase.
I’ll be sure to keep you updated on the release of the BME-66 Vinyl display case!
| P.S. – These engineers documented the complete design process on their site, which was also used by their professor and classmates for review. Be sure to visit their website if you want to find out more about their project or have any questions for them here. |