Overview

The team at Ecolab designed a more effective grill cleaning tool that provided a better user experience than the previous tool.

The Challenge

The new tool needed to be able to clean tight spots where the old tool couldn’t reach. Commercial grills are cleaned at high temperatures with chemicals so the tool needed to withstand these as well. It also needed to be safer, easier to use, more reliable, and lower cost than the previous tool.

The Solution

Customer requirements were gathered through visits to the field where users were observed and grills were cleaned by our team. Several iterations of tools were designed, prototyped, and tested in the field. Injection molding tooling was created when the design was complete. Extensive testing was conducted to verify that the design met all of the project requirements. The tool was launched in the summer of 2009 and is now being used in over 100 countries. Customer response has been positive with significant praise given to its durability.

My Contributions

• Gathered voice of customer (VOC)
• Prototyped parts
• Performed finite element analyses (FEA)
• Designed parts for injection molding
• Conducted failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA)
• Planned experiments and carried out testing
  • Material compatibility
  • Environmental
  • Reliability
  • Impact Loading

Links

• Grill tool training video
• Buy one
• Buy one by itself