Vale Industrial Design was approached with the task of exploring new methods and technologies to bring an electric curtain track (with the ability to be hand-formed) into their current product portfolio of manual straight and curved curtain and blind track systems.

Specification:

Existing prototype must fit into an existing track profile. New extruded aluminium track design would be too costly to develop at this stage
Minimum bend radius == 150mm
No specialist tools required for installation.

Flexible Curtain Track - Motorized

Concept Visualization

This stage of the design process is very open, particularly for this project. The specification provided little constraint on the design direction and this encouraged a high level of divergent thinking. These drawings focussed primarily on developing the core drive system for the curtain carriers. Systems included:

Power screws (rigid and flexible)
Belt drive
Rack and pinion
Pneumatically operated with magnetic couplings
Linear motors

Concept Realization

Drive systems were quickly verified by producing a number of quick “proof of concept” models. The aim here is to quickly develop cheap models that provide essential information to the designer and the customer as to the validity of certain tehnological methods.