choose case study ::  01  02  03  04  05  06

Coolskin shaver featuring a refillable cartridge

It all started with an editorial in a Dutch engineering magazine detailing our innovative ‘cost down - performance up’ aerosol caps and valves. This caught the eye of a senior development specialist within Philips Shavers, just when they were looking for a ‘go-for-it’ agency capable of delivering a user focussed but technically challenging solution for their next generation Coolskin shaver. 

The shaver was to somehow automatically pump lotion to the shaver head whilst shaving – improving glide, reducing skin abrasion and result in a more comfortable shaving experience.

Refillable cartridges had never been done before in shavers. Our task was to consider the overall cartridge and lotion flow scenario. We were to consider how the user would use, replace, refill, clean, store, recycle and live with the new product - and then develop the technical detail of how pumping, flow control and refilling would work in a efficient, cheap and clean form, with the right ‘radiance’ of quality and simplicity – and fit it all within the constraints of the pre-defined industrial design and engineering concept.

We thrive on these creative Challenges, it gives us the opportunity to gather our specialist associates for a series of brainstorming and ideation sessions. In this case our team included; product designers and usability specialists, mechanical engineers, a packaging technologist, a chemical engineer, advanced technology specialists and an anaesthetist – all bringing valuable cross-fertilisation of ideas from their diverse experiences.

Of course our brainstorms produced a mass of ideas, from wild and futuristic to brilliantly simple. These we sifted and filtered with the Philips team to select the most promising streams. The best were progressed through a series of rough models, test rigs, CAD models, prototypes and reviews with the Philips engineering, design and marketing teams. We ultimately homed-in on a simple and effective system consisting of a piggy-back cartridge and a bulk-pack derived from a standard ‘Nivea’ airless lotion pump.

Central to the success of the product are the self-sealing refill port on the back of the cartridge and the compliant diaphragm inside it, which allow a non-pressurised and airless system. Together these elements allow drip free transfer of lotion from the bulk dispenser to the cartridge. They take inspiration from the refuelling rigs of Formula One cars, hydraulic couplings, and the sterile syringe connectors used in hospitals, and are directly developed from a concept that emerged in our early brainstormings 

Rodd has a happy client and an ongoing product development relationship with Philips.