Ergonomic Grill Scraper

To satisfy an urgent request from one of their customers, Prince Castle enlisted DiMonte Group Inc. to develop an improved grill scraper.

Challenge

Protect employees burning hand on
    upper grill

Improve cleaning quality by insuring
    proper blade angle throughout
    stroke

Use manufacturing process with low
    tooling investment

Unit compatible with existing blade
    sharpening and tool storage bin

Development

After exploring the problem with 2-D sketching and 3-D massing models, a flexible test rig was constructed to evaluate ergonomics. As the design progressed, durable models were produced to prove concepts in restaurant tests.

Design for Manufacture

Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software was employed to develop strong geometry that satisfied the ergonomic, functional, & aesthetic criteria.

Quick response to change

Near the conclusion of the project the customer mandated a change from a disposable blade to a re-sharpenable one. The scraper had to be altered to fit several existing blade sharpeners without any adjustment in deadline.