Background
Hand-pump purifiers are slow, they fail to remove many waterborne viruses, bacteria and protozoa. Grayl makes clean drinking water in seconds, allowing users to tap into the world’s water sources and safely drink from spigots, hotel sinks, murky rivers, wells or lakes.
I was the standalone designer from concept to volume production with the goals:
- Improve filter swap user experience
- Increase capacity from 16oz to 24oz
- Prevent damage when dropped
- Eliminate lid contamination risk
Benchmarking
I went outside and used the product over hundreds of hours, identifying pain points.
I designed an equation that optimizes the filtration media, improving filtration flow rate and decreasing the force to press, making it much easier to use.
I created a variety of proportional models to evaluate ergonomics and functionality trading off size with filtration speed.
Development
I built and tested many lid designs that eliminate contamination in the cap design when pressing, made the filter quickly removable.
I built a bayonet mechanism that made the filter replacement super easy.
Durability testing and filtration quality assurance were done in early-stage development to ensure things like pleat optimization didn't cause the filter to fail. Critical-to-quality seals were tested to failure and optimized before tooling was made to save time and money as early in the process as possible.
Manufacturing
Pre-production transparent prototypes were built to assess the new filtration media pleat density assembly procedure ensuring high quality assurance standards. QAQC detail drawings ensured each prototype met these standards.
I worked closely with multiple factories going through many DFM rounds to hit mass production on time and under budget.
Glue assemble procedure
Cap undermold DFM
Filter lap joint
Filter cap clip DFM
Filter section fit
Topo overmold
Filtration testing
Results
- 3X faster filtering, (8sec@24oz vs 16sec@16oz)
- 2X filter life
- Simple & secure filter swap experience
“The GeoPress Purifier is the pinnacle achievement in our global mission to provide safe drinking water and surpass the limitations of filters and UV solutions, offering a true alternative to purchasing single-use plastic water bottles, which ultimately end up in landfills or polluting our oceans."
- President Andrew Weber -
Awards and Recognition
Patents
User research • Ergonomics • Industrial Design • Mechanical Design • Manufacturing Validation • Volume Production