The Making Of: The Swinger

We sat down with Micah, the product designer and engineer of the new Swinger.
We asked him some questions to get a better understanding of how this product came to life, and what exactly goes into a designing and building a revolutionary new tool holder.

Q: What was the original problem you were trying to solve for?
A: Our original problem was to come up with a Notch tool carrier with a lanyard attachment point. No one on the market had one and we felt that providing another place to attach your lanyard on a harness where space is at a premium would be super useful and cool.

Q: Did the scope of this project change at all, from the beginning to the finished product?
A: Yes, We originally didn’t plan on having the dual action gate. Outside of that scope change. Everything else was planned.

So wait. The project didn’t start out with the mission to create a dual action gate? That’s a big change.

Q: How did you come up with the idea of a dual swinging action gate?
A: Well that’s an interesting one. We had discussions with our internal team at the start of this project on what users are wanting. They said asked me why can't we make a gate that opens up and down? After I told them the mountain of ways why it wouldn’t work, I started thinking about it and thought it actually might work. After A LOT of prototyping, I realized that we might be able to make it happen.

Q: What was the process like for having an idea and starting the engineering process for designing and developing it?
A: This is my favorite part of my job. Having a list of features and reasons why we should create a product given to me is usually how a project starts. Once I have completed researching what is currently on the market, I can start to design and develop the product with solutions to solve problems that users currently have. This usually ends up with a lot of highs and lows. You may make the coolest looking product ever, but if it doesn’t work then you are right back to square one.

Once we have tested our prototype samples for many months with many iterations, we are ready to start tooling and getting the Swinger ready for showtime. This product specifically had a lot of challenges as the gate itself swings both in and out. We spent many months iterating on solutions to problems that kept popping up. Eventually we slowly solved all the problems and now have a super cool product we are excited to share with the world.

Q: Broadly speaking, what were some of the problems that kept coming up?
A: One of the biggest challenges that we overcame is the gate durability. It was really difficult to come up with a solution that would open and close for over 100,000 cycles. That was really difficult.

Another obstacle that we addressed is making sure the gate closes back to zero. We needed the gate to close back to the position that it could be locked in. It was close but we needed better tolerances to keep it in that position.

We also had to address the deflection of the tool carrier when weighted and un-weighted. After time it would slowly open by one mm and would cause the gate to separate.

Q: How did field testing go? What were initial reactions?
A: Field testing is always the most nerve-wracking part of the process. Up until field testing, there usually hasn’t been a lot of eyes on the project. My focus has been on making the Swinger work. Once you send out a product for field testing, you open up the project to criticism by the people you are trying to sell this to.

Right off the bat, we got incredibly positive feedback. There was a lot of buzz about the Swinger and how it works. People loved the ease of attachment to the harness along with the lanyard attachment point on bottom. We got a lot of comments from testers saying they were concerned about the gate and then once they tested it they were really impressed with the racking and un-racking.

We spent most of our project in the testing phase as iterated on the durability of the gate, and the functionality.

Q: What types of testing did you perform? Did you have to make up your own testing for durability, ensuring the gate would last?
A: We did a lot of cycle testing to ensure all components last for the lifespan of the product. We tested the twist lock of the gate, the opening and closing of the gate, and the strength of the tool carrier weighting and un-weighting products.

We had to create our own testing fixtures and our own test requirements as this didn’t fit any standard or known requirement currently in the industry.

Q: How many prototypes/iterations did you have for this design?
A: Including 3D printed models, CNC’d prototypes, and tooled samples we had more than 50 iterations for this design.

Q: What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome during the development process?
A: Details suck. Always. The biggest challenge was coming up with the little things that were OK but not great. Getting 80% of the way there was the easy part. Getting across the finish line is always the hard part.