Introduction: Bakery Slide and Support Bar

We made this bakery slide and support bar for Emma.

Emma is a 18-year old student; studying to be a baker- chocolatier. She loves working with chocolate and hopes to have her own gluten-free bakery and chocolate shop one day.

Taking in to account, Emma is a hard worker and sticks with everything she tries to accomplish, she does has a lot of difficulty with coordinating her movements. While slicing and moulding the chocolate and sugar, she normally has no support and no stability, which builds up the tension and makes it hard to work with the right amount of pressure.

In that thought, we tried to give her just that. Support and mobility at the same time.

We focused on key-points such as: mobility vertically and diagonally , ergonomic hand and wrist posture, light weight, compact transportability of the aid and a touch of personality.

In co-design with Emma, the high-school teacher 'Chocolate', Emma's support teacher, our motor abilities support team of the supportnetwork of city school in Ghent, and myself; an occupational therapist, we brainstormed, chose, selected and made this ultimate idea.

We made 8 different prototypes and made a total of 12 visits to adjust and re-adjust the aid to point.

Below you will find instructions and files to make your own slide and support bar.

Team: Emma Bogaert, Ellen Vanoverbeke, T4 doelgroep-team Ondersteuningsteam Stad Gent, Robrecht Baetens en Debbie Van Luchem

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Step 1: Overview and Video

Step 2: Gather Your Supplies, Parts and Gear

We designed the Bakery slide & support bar as simple as possible to keep the weight minimal and respect the health code as this aid will be used in kitchens.
In the next step; you'll find step by step instruction photo's to recreate this aid.

Materials;

  • plasther bar (L1m x H1,8cm -- 0,1cm W-9cm)
  • 2 aluminum solar panel rails (H 4cm - W- 4cm - L60 cm)
  • 2 star knobbs M8 screw-wire (H4,6cm)
  • 2 washers M8 size
  • 2 square or rectangle nuts
  • silicone non-slip material - safe to use in cooking evironments
  • pattex plastic uni second glue
  • clear packing tape
  • light weight printing paper
  • laserprinter to print sticker design
  • black canvas re-used 'banner' bag with two handles and long zipper

Gear:

  • scissors
  • bowl with warm water
  • ironsaw
  • metal milling machine
  • pencil
  • measuring rod

Step 3: Mill the Slots in the Bar for Maximal Mobility

We made a technical drawing plan with exact location where the slots had to be milled in so a metal worker could mill the slots in for us.
The slots make sure there is nog only vertical but also diagonal mobility.
After the slots are into place; place the starknobbs, washers and nuts into place.
The rectangle or square nut makes sure you can tighten the bolt and loosen it whenever necessary.
The washer makes sure the bolt does not damage the rail when you tighten it.

Look at the drawing so you place in the parts in the correct order.

Step 4: Cut the Non-slip Silicone and Glue It on the Bodem of the Rails

After cutting the strokes we tried adhesing the strokes to the aluminum rails.
Adhesing the silicone strokes was quite the struggle.
When recreating this, it would be advisable to use self-adhesive non-slip silicone.

Step 5: Personalise With Stickers

We used a DIY labeling sticker hack for our personalised stickers.
We used these following steps:

  • print the logo's and sticker design with and inktjet laser printer on light weight paper.
  • trim the printed out logo's and stickers.
  • uUse a wide clear packing tape to stick over the trimmed out paper.
  • rub the ink in the packing tape with a measuring rod or a card.
  • trim the remaining tape off
  • soak the tape sticker in warm water for 5 minutes
  • rub off the paper in the warm water
  • stick the clear sticker on parchment paper until you are ready to use the sticker
  • stick the stickers on the bar

* For Emma; We used a Walthograph typing and Disney hands holding a chocolate bar because of her love for Disney. We used a touch of soft pink because that is Emma's favourite colour. Logo's are delivered to us by our main partners; Howest and city of Ghent.

Step 6: Get Using and Check Design Wishes

  • easy mobility vertical and diagonally = check
  • ergonomic for wrists = check
  • gives support while working = check
  • compactness = check
  • lightweight = check
  • transportable = check
  • personal = check

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Step 7: Bonus Gear Adaptions

As a bonus we also adapted the extra gear Emma has to use while working.

1. ergonomic slicing gear.
In stead of a slicing blade we used a RVS-pointed pen that slices trought the chocolate. Because of the cilindric design of the point, it slices in every direction with minimal wrist repositioning.
As a bonus; you can heat up the RVS point with a heat gun if the chocolate soldifies to quick.

2. durable templates.

The templates Emma has te use are downloadable from her school platform Smartschool. She downloads the templates, prints them out and cuts them out by hand.
Because those cutting actions ask a lot of effort from her, we optimalised this process.

After we printed the template, we cut it out in hard plastic (PVC) with a sharp blade so the template could be re-used again and again. The plastic is easy to clean en gives a better grip for stabilisation of the template on the chocolate.

Step 8: Check All the Boxes

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