Two Edinburgh Napier students, Kyle Farquhar from Aberdeen and Scott Rutherford from Edinburgh, who are both studying product design, have come second and third respectively in the national Design Innovation in Plastics Awards.
Second year student Kyle designed PlateMate which is a foldable dish to help children create fajitas, and Scott produced a Rotary Bottle Opener which will help those with hand dexterity conditions to open screw tops more easily. The opener converts pressure into turning force to open twist top bottles. Scott had encountered initial failure but the judges were impressed that this did not deter him from developing a workable prototype.
The judges loved PlateMate which introduces a bit of fun into the kitchen and the bottle opener will help many with otherwise impossible to open bottles.
Scott said that at least two-thirds of his product was capable of being made with recycled bottle top. He said: “It feels great to be recognised for my work and hopefully this is just the beginning.”
Kyle said: “It means a lot to have got this far in the competition and has demonstrated to me how hard work combined with a brilliant opportunity can succeed. In doing so, I’ve learned about manufacturing and about the different properties of the polypropylene plastic which I used in the making of my product.”
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