Charlie Borthwick
He/Him
As a designer I am passionate about creativity and problem solving. From concept creation to ensuring functional and commercial viability, I enjoy having the skills to engage with the design process at many stages.
He/Him
Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is prominent in around 1-5% of the population. CTS occurs when pressure is put on the median nerve in the wrist.
People who suffer from CTS are likely to experience a difficulty gripping objects, numbness in the hands and pain in the fingers, wrist, hand or arm.
Due to the symptoms experienced, people with CTS often struggle to partake in daily activities and this can often have a negative impact on their ability to work. This can be detrimental to their income and also lead to worsening symptoms.
CTS-THERAPIES is a product used to mitigate the symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome and aid recovery through the use of hot and cold therapies.
Gel packs are heated or cooled by a desktop device using a Peltier cell system. The Peltier system is in contact with an aluminium plate which the gel packs sit on top of to ensure multiple gel packs can be ready for use.
Gel packs are then transferred into a pouch on a specialised wrist brace in order to provide hot or cold therapies.
Therapy is timed and temperature is monitored by the wearable element attached to the wrist brace. This allows the user to know when to remove gel packs and when it is safe to insert a new gel pack.
Cold therapy can be used during activities to alleviate pain and help allow users to participate in daily activities and work.
Hot therapy is used during rest to repair damaged tissues and reduce inflammation long term.
Multiple stages of prototyping were undertaken during the development of the product. The final prototype created in response to this process simulated the cold therapy element of the final product and enabled gel packs to be cooled to temperature using a Peltier system.
This module was a group project that tasked us to design and produce a robot that met specific brief requirements to put out tea lights and navigate various obstacles across a course. The final robot was capable of being controlled remotely, climb various ramps with unique features, extinguish tea lights at multiple heights and manoeuvre a track demonstrating control. Unique features incorporated into the final robot included a retractable arm utilising three servo motors with individual control over each, an IR sensor on the arm that enabled visual LED feedback of the arms position over the flame, and a rocker-bogie suspension system to enable smooth transition over obstacles.
This module tasked us with learning the skills required to surface model a product in Solidworks. In order to learn these skills we were required to produce orthographic drawings of an artefact we would attempt to model. The model decided upon was a retro style Ray gun designed from scratch. This model was designed to be relatively ambitious in order to demonstrate a broad range of surface modelling techniques and skills.
Charlie Borthwick – Product Design and Technology Student.
Last year I engaged with a placement year as a Toy inventor at Carterbench. During this placement I was able to spend time working with a lovely team to invent toys for various toy companies such as Mattel, Hasbro and Spinmaster.
During this year I gained a lot of skills useful both within and outside the toy industry. A focus was placed on incorporating unique mechanisms into toys and through this a lot of prototyping was undergone alongside 3D modelling and concept creation. This helped refine my problem solving skills and understand the importance of organising ideas into a format in which they can be pitched to clients.
Outside of work I spend much of my time still doing design related activities. I have been running a sustainable clothing business for the past few years and have sold at various events around Nottingham. Pieces produced for this project are designed and printed by me on second hand vintage clothing in order to bring new life to old clothes. Successes I have had with this project include printing a piece for the frontman of a Sony subsidiary signed band, Maruja. This piece was worn at various shows across Europe on their European tour.