Multi-tasking faucet packs cool spoolMulti-tasking faucet packs cool spool

North Olmsted, OH--When designers at faucet manufacturer Moen considered making a new low-cost, two-function faucet, they enlisted the help of design consulting firm Design Continuum (West Newton, MA) for de-signing the faucet and getting it to market in less than one year. "That left us eight weeks to explore the options and get it ready for tooling," said Kevin Johnson, an engineer at Design Continuum.

The PureTouch Classic faucet's functions include switching back and forth between delivering filtered and unfiltered water. Its range of operating parameters includes both cold water and hot, 140F water.

"It also had to hold back 120 psi pressures," says Johnson. "If someone attempted to remove the head when pressure reached 120 psi, it would be dangerous." He found during testing that 120 psi was enough pressure to shoot a faucet head through drywall in the testing room.

Design Continuum overcame the potentially dangerous situation by adding an extra quarter-turn connector to the faucet head. As the faucet head is disassembled, the connector keeps the loosened faucet head in place long enough for highpressure water to escape.

Because of time constraints, the team determined that tooling had to occur during prototype development. So any problems with the design would have to be addressed on the fly, while the tooling phase proceeded. Models that would normally precede the development phase now were done simultaneously with system and part design.

Design decisions were sometimes made so quickly that suppliers had trouble meeting requests for samples. In one case, the team switched from a titanium valve to a plastic valve when the titanium casting arrived late. Johnson says that at one point the design firm had a dozen people working on it evenings and weekends to meet the deadline. "We used a combination of couriers and cases of beer to expedite delivery," he says.

For the final product, the engineers at Design Continuum designed a unique spool valve into the faucet. "The spool is attached to the actuator," says Johnson. "When you push the faucet's button, it actuates and locks in place." Filtered water flows through the center of the actuator and is radially dispersed. Then, a small aerator in the filter outlet redirects the water into a smooth, laminar flow when it comes out of the faucet.