Kibardindesign

This section will lift the curtain over my laboratory. Here, like a medieval alchemist, I return to the same search of meaning, form and essence of things over and over again. I conduct various researches, which becomes a reliable foundation for my design.

Elements and design

Elements. Water Fire Air Earth

Simple things. Iron 2

Simple things. Iron

Forms

Simple things. Spoon

Useful asymmetry

Сhaos

Texture

Frame technology

Golden ratio

Operated materials

Bioamorphous structures

1. The Iron is a device for removing creases from fabric. I don’t understand why people always thought that clothes and underwear have to be ironed. Maybe it is just another way of human differentiation. But anyway, the device’s task hasn’t changed throughout the humanity’s existence. The scientists say that flat stones were the first ironing tools. Still wet fabric was laid on one stone, a second stone was pressed down on top, and the fabric was left until dry. After stones came a metal hammer: the Romans simply hammered the wrinkles out. In Russia a “clothes-beater” and a “pralnik” were used. Fabric was spooled on the pin and >	the pin was rolled along the riffled plank. All these means were time-consuming and not very effective until it was clear that with the help of temperature the process can be simplified and sped up. At that moment the device acquired two components: a metal part for heating and a wooden or bone handgrip to handle the hot surface safely. In Greece people learned to iron with the help of a hot metal cane. In the middle of the century people began to use flat-based containers full of coal. It’s interesting that this device appeared in China first of all, a little later it got to Europe.

2.Obviously, before the appearance of electricity the iron’s evolution process developed in the direction of the existing principle’s improvement. Hot coal was placed inside a metal container or a metal-cast massive bar was heated up externally. Throughout this period many modifications appeared. “Wind” irons, for example, existed since the 15th >	century. Birch coal was put inside a metal case with holes. When the coal died out the iron was to be swung around or blown through with the help of a special tube. Later the coal was replaced by iron-cast bars. In the 18th century this model was mass-produced in Demidov’s Foundries in Russia and everywhere in Europe.

3. Apart from this type of iron there were solid-cast iron models. They were heated up on open fire or in stoves. The heating took up to half an hour and because it was impossible to hold this iron with bare hands, a special holder was needed. These inconveniences forced to improve the model and, as a result, two bases and a detachable handle appeared. While one base was being heated up, the second one ironed. The handles were made mostly out of wood, later they were made out of composite materials. Such irons were produced and used until the middle of the 20th century, when many houses weren’t supplied with electricity and this model was the only solution.

It’s interesting that the design and production technology of irons were defined by the principle of operation.

	4. However, the use of coal as a heating element led to fabric damage, as the small heated crumbs fell out of the iron and burned holes. And to heat up replaceable platforms without a fire source was impossible. Therefore the appearance of gas and spirit irons in the end of the 19th - the beginning of the 20th century was natural and actual. By means of a pressure device, gas was pumped from a cylinder to the iron case where it heated up the ironing surface. Such devices were progressive from the technical point of view, but unsafe. Because of unreliable construction, cases of gas leakage were frequent. Frequent fires became the reason for the search of an alternative kind of fuel. Spirit answered all demands. Spirit irons were revolutionary. They were very light-weighted and relatively safe; such devices could heat up very quickly. It was even possible to travel with them.

5. But the invention of an electric iron became the real new coil in evolution. On June, 6th, 1882 an American, Henry Sili, patented his project: an iron, the heating element of which became the electric arch between coal electrodes. Direct current use made a revolution in instrument making, but as always, the first models were imperfect: many cases of electric shock. This has forced developers to search for new constructive decisions, and in 1892 a heating spiral was invented. This element of heating was reliably isolated from the case and was placed directly over the ironing surface.

Since then the technology of surface heating has not changed. In the thirties of the 20th century a thermostat appeared – an element that adjusts heating degrees, a container with water for steaming and humidifying fabric, and electronic elements for the control of processes and setting the constrained parameters.

Apart from that, throughout the whole of the past century changes occurred in the field of materials and design of the device. So, some manufacturers began to apply ceramic glass surfaces instead of metal ones. There are ideas of implementing heating elements into the glass sole of the iron - the transparent device will allow supervising the process better. It is obvious that the iron history is a story of searching for the best way of heating the sole; it began with coal and open fire and got to electricity. And external changes (materials, formation) always followed new engineering solutions. The design has been justified, materials weren't accidental, and the manufacturing techniques of the device's various parts (the case, the handle, and containers) on the whole fell into line with the function of the iron and the processes inside. This was present until the middle of the 20th century, before the appearance of plastic and wide spectrum of development possibilities. Did evolution make a mistake? Why without basic changes in construction did the design begin to vary? Read on the article about application of materials expediency in the course of industrial products design...