Brief
Together with our client, we produced a door handle installation system that aided professional joiners and significantly reduced installation time.
We wanted to fulfil the product's purpose whilst still ensuring that it had a responsible product lifecycle.
The purpose of the jig is to allow a user to quickly mark and rout the rebate for a door hinge of lock, using a standard hand drill. The jig will clamp directly to the door, enabling the user to rout various sized rebates to accommodate different size hinges and lock face plates.
Challenges
We had to create an aesthetic device that would make the lives of professional joiners easier when it came to fitting a door handle. This had to be a universal product that would work on multiple applications. The product had to be designed to be portable and easy to use.
Whilst making a functional product, we had to be aware of the material, manufacturing processes & assembly as well as disassembly needed to ensure it has a responsible end of life plan.
Assa Abloy | Jigtech door installation
Fulfilling the product purpose whilst ensuring a responsible end of life
Insight
Our client approached us with the idea of a product that would clamp to a door and allow professional joiners to use the assembly to install a door handle. In our insight phase, we carried out research by asking joiners themselves for their opinion on what the ideal product would consist of for this type of work.
Through this research, we identified key features of the product including accuracy, ease of use & speed. Conducted alongside this research, we analysed various material & manufacturing processes that would keep the product as responsible as possible when it came to its life end.
Create
We knew the jig had some mechanical properties which had to be incorporated to be easily achievable within the design. These included:
- - Ability to accommodate 3” to 4.5” hinges (max 4” width)
- - Ability to accommodate 250mm (l) 25.5.mm (w) locks
- - Ability to create cutouts using hand drill
- - Retain router bit in jig
- - Ability to adjust height of router bit to accommodate depth or hinge or faceplate
- - Incorporate self-centering clamp (parallelogram) for door clamping
- - Incorporate self-centering width adjustment for lock cutting (Jigtech mechanism)
We developed a suitable test rig within the 3D CAD software and a fully functional prototype was fabricated to replicate the tolerances of a production jig.
Validate
Extensive testing of the jig was carried out to accurately validate the tolerances and functionality.
To conclude the product development process, the final stage ensured the design of the jig was ready for manufacture, feeding back any modification required by the vendor into the design and outputting 3D CAD data and supporting specification documents such as 2D drawings and a BOM.
Outcomes
The developed system is innovative thanks to its self-centering clamping mechanism and ensures you drill in the right place every time when installing the handle and latch. As a result, the Jigtech Pro reduces fitting time from 20 minutes to under 5 minutes.
Test Rigs & Prototypes
Test rigs and a fully functional prototype were created to test the tolerance and ease of use of the product.
Design For Manufacture
Our designs ensured that the product was viable and ready for manufacturing straight away through our comprehensive three stage product design process. Manufacturing Support Manufacturing outsourcing was offered to the client with the possibility of using our own in-house low volume production services.
