Motion Safety Guide for Product Design: Identifying Risks & Solutions

Anywhere human hands are involved, there’s risk.

A hinged countertop has long been a staple in bars and restaurant kitchens. It gives employees a convenient pass-through while keeping the countertop usable when the opening isn’t needed. But once you start working with heavier countertop materials, lifting that section all day can become a pain. Literally.

You’re designing a heavy lid, door, gate, or similar moving component into your next product. But the motion isn't behaving the way the design calls for it to.

Low-carbon steel is affordable and versatile. Rust, unfortunately, doesn’t care.

A long shift is hard enough without the equipment making employees work harder than they need to. A workstation that forces an awkward movement may seem like a small annoyance at first. Do it a few hundred times, and your body may have a different opinion.

A flip-up countertop seems simple enough. It goes up. It comes back down. How complicated could it be?

Mechanical motion control manufacturers power up their machining equipment every day. CNC milling machines are creating detailed work, and jig routers are making deep cuts.

If you’ve ever reached an in-house design or engineering stalemate during a project, the idea of outsourcing has probably come up. And there’s one burning question that probably crossed your mind first:

A heavy-duty hinge rarely gets blamed first.

When everything is working, most people never think about the technology behind it.