About this project
The Standing Task Chair is the worlds first device for ergonomically supporting the human body in a standing position. It reduces the fatigue of prolonged standing by removing the weight of your body from your legs, while at the same time positioning your body so that you can be effective at performing tasks that require standing.
YOGA INSPIRED BODY POSITIONING: The Standing Task Chair is unique in the way it positions your body. The inspiration comes from a Yoga standing meditation pose. In Yoga, they teach you to be aware of your relationship with gravity, so that you stay upright with a minimum of physical effort and focus on aligning your bones with gravity, to make it is as easy as possible to relax your muscles. The Standing Task Chair uses the same body positioning and adds support at the seat, knees and feet. Your upper body is aligned with gravity in the same manner so that your body naturally conforms to a more healthy, comfortable position.
EFFECTIVE FOR COMPLEX TASKS: Tasks that we normally do standing require us to have the ability to move, to reach and to apply forces.
The Standing Task Chair works effectively at these complex tasks because it positions your body so that you can apply forces like downward pressure, pushing and pulling. It allows you to step from side to side without getting off the chair and gives you leverage to reach for objects.
LEVERAGE FOR APPLYING FORCES: The unique combination of the angled foot platform and the knee pad gives your body leverage and control so that you can effectively apply forces necessary for standing tasks.
ERGONOMIC SUPPORT:The fatigue of prolonged standing is reduced by removing the weight of your body from your legs and distributing your weight over your seat, knees and feet.
IMPROVED SPINE ALIGNMENT: Sitting is not a natural position for the spine. The standing position takes the stress off your back so you can spend hours performing standing tasks without fatigue.
DESIGNED FOR STANDING HEIGHT WORK SURFACES: Kitchen Counters, Benches, Standing Desks, Table Saws, Cash Registers, Copy Machines, Drafting Tables, Audio Mixing Boards. These are just a few of the work surfaces at which we typically stand to perform tasks.
FREEDOM OF MOVEMENT: The seat pivots from the base to allow it to move when you move. You can step from side to side and turn your body while the seat follows your motion. The Standing Task Chair gives you the same freedom of movement that you have when you’re standing on your feet, while reducing leg and foot fatigue.
FLEXIBLE AND ADJUSTABLE:With the height-adjustable kneepad and the seat on a gas spring, the Standing Task Chair can be adjusted for us by almost everyone, regardless of their height and weight.
MOVING THE CHAIR: To move the chair, you pick it up by the seat, which activates the wheels, move it where you want it, and set it down. The chair is designed to remain stationary when in use.
BUILT WITH THE FINEST MATERIALS: Only the finest materials are used in the construction of the Standing Task Chair. The frame is made of solid oak, or welded steel,and powder coated The knee pad is made with high density foam and the contoured gel filled seat gives you hours of comfort.
PRODUCTION PLAN: We plan to make two versions of the STC in the beginning, one with a solid oak base as in our prototype and one with a welded steel base. Functionality will be the same. The steel base version will be finished with a black powder coating.
Although most of the parts will be purchased off the shelf, a few will have to be custom made and dies produced. The money from Kickstarter will be spent streamlining the design for mass production and having dies made for the custom parts and ordering raw materials to fulfill orders . Assembly, packaging and shipping will be done at our assembly plant in Winnsboro Texas.
Risks and challenges
There are always risks when bringing a new product to market.But we already have our own facility for assembly, packaging and shipping.The seat, gas cylinder and pivot are off the shelf products.The wood base pieces will be processed at a CNC manufacturer then brought into our facilities for assembly.The steel frame will be welded and powder coated at a local manufacturer and sent to our assembly plant.Fabrication of the connecting pieces will require dies to be made.
The funds raised from this Kickstarter project will be used to create that tooling and produce the first production run (100 to 1,000 units). We conservatively estimate 4-6 months from beginning tooling to first production run completion.
The biggest risk with Kickstarter is that you don’t know if we will have to build 80 chairs or 8000. We are set up with short run manufactures who can quickly and easily produce the smaller volumes (up to 1000).If we are highly successful, we will find manufacturers who have higher production capabilities.These are fairly simple fabrications so we don’t see any problems meeting the demand, but we have addressed the possibility of delays by spreading the estimated delivery out for higher quantities.
Source: Kickstarter
Mechanical Engineering Department 