Survey

A survey has been taken to see if middle aged women are interested in using reusable cotton pads and whether they are willing to let them be washed in a store. This because there was a lot of uncertainty on what the thoughts of the target group was on the concept.

The conclusion of this survey is that almost nobody knew of the existence of reusable cotton pads, but most of the women were interested in them. However, most women had questions about the hygienic aspect of washing them in store. This is incorporated into the final concept by making sure it is easy to separate cotton pads when a customer wants to use her own pads.

For the full results of the survey, click the button

Survey results

Concept

steam machine

On the left, the first concept of the steaming machine is found, which is inspired by a toaster. In this version 15 pads could be cleaned at once, but they would have to be manually placed inside a roster and which would then be placed inside the machine. The pads would be cleaned by a steam blower followed by a vacuum component.

Concept

washing machine

On the right, the initial concept of the washing machine can be found. The wash machine is specially designed for the pads and drying them afterward, without having to put the machine on again.

Development process of the steam machine

In order to design the best product for the product service system, requirements have to be made.

Requirements:

The machine should

clean and dry pads

let the pads look unused after cleaning

use little water

function with no existing plumbing

wash at least 100 pads an hour

fit to the store with the aesthetics

be operable by 1 person

have no unpleasant smells

be reasonably quiet

use power from a wall socket

The washing machine is more certain to succeed in cleaning and drying pads, but both machines will work properly. It is a bit unsure if they can clean the cotton pads to a state that they look brand new. The steam machine uses a lot less water compared to the washing machine, but both do not use as much as a normal washing machine.

Both can work without existing plumbing but they also both have a tank that has to be filled with water and a tank that has to be emptied, so a kitchen sink is necessary for both concepts. When the machine is placed in the store, it is brought under the attention and works positively for our branding. The machines should be aesthetically pleasing. Both the concepts can clean 100 pads per hour, the washing machine actually 200 per wash which takes an hour. Both are operable by one person. It is more certain the washing machine will not really emit unpleasant smells, but it is not possible to say much about this for the steam machine. Both machines will make some noise, which can be a bit disturbing. And last of all, both machines can draw power from a wall socket.

Looking at the calculation the washing machine got more points. But the difference is very small. So after a discussion there has been decided to work with the steam concept. This is because it is more innovative and uses a lot less water. The concept is more interesting to work out because it is not something that already exists but smaller. (click on the table for more explanation on the requirements)

Heating element

The machine is only used a small amount of time a day. When in one minute 20 pads are cleaned, the machine will be used 10 minutes a day. Part of the PSS is that customers also get the opportunity to let their reusable cotton pads be cleaned professionally in the stores. In the survey taken, hygiene is an important issue for potential customers. Our service will comfort them by explaining the cleaning method used and the fact that their own pads will be returned. Making sure the customers reuse the same pads allows us to provide the cosmetic stores with returning customers due to wear of the pads.

This means that for the selection of the heating method and/or heating element we have to keep in mind that the machine is off most of the time. When it is turned on, there is a need to clean the pads. When the employee wants to clean the pads he or she has one of the two goals:

Clean a lot of pads, 200 for example, with time pressure of approximately 1 hour
Clean pads for the customer with time pressure of a few minutes

For the heating element there are a few options:

Option one is containing a boiler within the product that will always contain 0.74 L of boiling water.
Option two is to have a heating element that works fast and almost directly delivers hot water.
Option three is to have a heating up time before the use where the water in the boiler is heated and used
Option four is to have a heating up time before the use where the heating element gets more time to heat up.

These requirements for the heating elements are in order of importance:

Deliver steam directly or within a maximum of 2 minutes
Keep the energy use as low as possible
The price of the heating element should be limited

Constant Boiler (Cooker)

The best isolated boilers use 511 kWh per year for 10 L of boiling water a day
For cosmetic stores an estimation is made that per day 0.75 L of water is used
Per cosmetic store the energy costs of a well isolated and vacuum boiler is 38,3 kWh each year with the average of 1 use of 0.75 L each day
A negative effect is that these boilers are expensive and only exist with a volume of 3 liters and costs
The positive effect is that you don’t need a pump and immersion heater that also take energy and time
The price of the product is scored 3/3

Instant Boiler

This boiler is heated up to 100 degrees when the machine is turned on, like a kettle.
This takes 0.06975 kWh each time when 0.75 L water is heated from 20 degrees. In this calculation the specific heat of 0.75 g water is used.
In this calculation the heat loss during the process is not taken into account
In this calculation the option of the water temperature still being above 20 degrees is not taken into account. The possibility of this being higher than 20 degrees is likely when the hot water is isolated well.
This uses 25,46 kWh each year with the average of 1 use of 0.75 L each day
A positive aspect is that the energy usage can be minimized with isolation
The positive effect is that you don’t need a pump and immersion heater that also take energy
The time it takes to heat the water is 1.9 minutes when using a power of 2200 W.
The price of the product is scored 1/3

Immersion Heater

For this system we use the cooking water dispensers as a reference
These products heat water in small amounts to create a continuous flow of hot water
After 5 seconds the hot water can begin to flow. The product we use as a reference is by Trebs.
This product uses 2600 W to pump the cold water in the heating location and to heat the water to 100 degrees.
In one minute 450-500 ml of hot water is produced. Using the comparison that 0.75 liter is used this means that 0.065 kWh is used each day
This concept uses 23,73 kWh each year with the average of 1 use of 0.75 L each day
The price of the product is scored 2/3

The final choice for the heating element will be the immersion heater, because it uses the fewest kWh, and has a good price

steam machine

V1

The second version was made a lot larger than the first one to increase the capacity. The water tank holds up to 8 litres. The introduction of the conveyor belt made the cleaning process continuous so now it became possible to clean up to 32 pads per minute. The pads don’t have to be manually placed inside the machine, they can be dumped in at the front and two rollers will distribute them.

Steam machine

V2

The increase in size and capacity of the previous version was too drastic. This version is 15 cm shorter, however it is still as tall and deep as version 1. This version can clean 24 pads per minute. The water tanks is also decreased in size to hold 6 litres. This created some empty space, marked red.

steam machine

V3

This version has the same dimensions as version 3. The differences are that the location of the motor has changed from the left to the right, the clean water and dirty water tank are swapped and the collection basket is now integrated into the machine.

steam machine

V4

For the fifth iteration, some big changes were made. All of the internal parts are rotated 90 degrees with respect to the exterior. The outer dimensions went from 45x30x30 cm to 26x32x26 cm (length x width x height). Because the conveyor belt is a lot smaller, a lot less pads fit on it at the same time. Furthermore, the cleaning process is no longer continuous. The pads can still be deposited at the front, but now the belt will rotate until it is completely filled after which the cleaning starts. The cleaned pads are caught in a drawer that can be completely removed as opposed to the previous version.

Redesign process

For the complete redesign process, click the button

Development process of the cotton pad

In order to choose the right materials and size, requirements are determined.

Requirements for the cotton pad

Should last for 2 years
Should use less water for production and cleaning than usual cotton
Should have fewer greenhouse gas emissions than usual cotton
Should be as easy and good to use as a usual cotton pad
Should have the need to use makeup cleaner; otherwise shops can’t sell cleaners
Should be washable or steamable without damaging the environment

Bamboo:

- grows 5 times faster than cotton, and is regenerating

- naturally antibacterial, hypoallergenic and strong

- chemical and mechanical production processes; mechanical is very expensive, not possible on large scale; chemical environmentally bad

Organic cotton:

- uses 88% less water use and 46% fewer greenhouse gass emissions than regular cotton

- biodegradable

- no pesticides

- only 0,55% of the cotton production is organic; more expensive than regular cotton

- less field efficient

Both materials are tested. Cotton is like towel fabric, so a bit rough for the eye area, but gives a really clean feeling and it is easy to take the make-up off. For Bamboo, the pad was too soft, feeling like it did not clean at all and using more cleanser than with organic cotton. Still organic cotton uses more cleanser than a regular disposable pad.

Material test

Giving every requirement a weight and grading the material, organic cotton came out better than bamboo. Also with testing, the organic cotton pad was preffered. Therefore, organic cotton is used for the cotton pad. (for explanation of the weight of each requirement, click on the table)