RYOBI Scissors
This was an interesting project I worked on, during my time at TTI. My primary focus was on the development of electronic hand tools, but I ended up taking this project on to ease the load on a teammate. It was a good learning experience about hand tools, and manufacturing processes for metal, and textured polyurethane molding.
We went through dozens of concepts and iterations before converging on our final design
The key features are:
Tape Breaker - This is a secondary blade just sharp enough to break tape, intended to save the blade from getting gummed up while opening boxes.
Nano-textured finger grip - This is intended to help the user grip the handle while making precise cuts. It took lots of work with our manufacturing team out in Asia to use chemical etching instead of laser etching for the mold tooling. We were able to use chemical etching, which saved tens of thousands of dollars from our tooling budget.
Anti-Loosening Hinge - We were able to borrow the patented anti-loosening hinge design from our sister company, Milwaukee!
Stainless Steel Blade - This material choice was the best for blade strength/retention and rust prevention.
Ambidextrous, Ergonomic Grip - We spent many days studying how people typically grip scissors and came up with a design that maximizes comfort for both right and left-handed people while making sure it was still manufacturable.
Textured TPU Overmold - It was always a delight when our budget allowed us room to use overmold! We chose a TPU (textured poly-urethane) overmold, with a heavy texture to maximize grip when working with water/oils.
Overall, this was a really cool project to work on and learn more about bringing a hand tool out to market!