Accessible Test

Geometro GS16 Mini Set

(New)
Technical Research met with the Project Leader, Purchasing, and Production to determine how these items would be received from the vendor and depending on that, determined how they would be packaged in-house. After this was determined, Technical Research designed product specifications and turned them over in August. The parts were ordered and received into stock August 19^th. Technical Research will work with Production when packaging begins which is scheduled for September 2009. There are also four sets of shapes that will be offered by APH as additional parts to go with these three sets. Technical Research designed labels for the vendor to attach to the packs of parts allowing them to go directly into stock. There will be the GPT Pack of 6 Triangles, GPS Pack of 6 Squares, GPP Pack of 6 Pentagons, and GPH Pack of 6 Hexagons. These bags of parts were received along with the rest of the sets of parts on August 19^th and will be going into stock.

Geometro GS22 Medium Set

(New)
Technical Research met with the Project Leader, Purchasing, and Production to determine how these items would be received from the vendor and depending on that, determined how they would be packaged in house. After this was determined, Technical Research designed product specifications and turned them over in August. The parts were ordered and received into stock August 19^th. Technical Research will work with Production when packaging begins, which is scheduled for September 2009.

Geometro GS56 Large Set

(New)
Technical Research met with the Project Leader, Purchasing, and Production to determine how these items would be received from the vendor and depending on that, determined how they would be packaged in house. After this was determined, Technical Research designed product specifications and turned them over in August. The parts were ordered and received into stock August 19^th. Technical Research will work with Production when packaging begins, which is scheduled for September 2009.

Graphic Aid for Math

(Revisions)
Technical Research worked with Project Leader to find possible alternative materials to use to 1) make the board from, and 2) to use with current or revised board. Suggested materials included rubberized cork material for the board and vinyl coated, thin gauge solid wire that might be used for a graphing material. Vendors were contacted to obtain samples of board material and wire was ordered for the Project Leader to evaluate. Samples of the various cork materials were found to be unsuitable for use in the board. The Project Leader and Technical Research worked together to re-design the board, keeping the rubber mat concept and also explored the possibility of making the board 2-sided for greater versatility. Technical Research created tooling drawings for two distinct rubber mats. These were approved by the Project Leader and turned over to the Purchasing Department in July. These drawings have been sent out to several vendors for bids. Once bids are received, the Project Leader and Technical Research will review the feasibility of moving forward with a 2-sided design for this product from a cost standpoint. Work on this project is ongoing.

Home Grown Video: Sensory Learning Kit DVD

(Completed)
Technical Research met with the Project Leader and developed product specifications for this latest of the Home Grown video series. Specifications were completed and turned over to Production in July. The DVD was produced and placed into stock in August.

i-vu

(Completed)
This was essentially a pass-thru product. Technical Research monitored the progress of this product to make sure it was ordered and received. It was stocked October 2008.

Jump Rope for Fitness Kit

(Completed)
This product contains a electronic Ropeless Jump Rope, three plastic beaded ropes that come in different length/color combinations, a competition style jump rope, anti-fatigue mat and both print and braille guidebooks. Following field-testing, Technical Research met with Project Leader and Accounting/Inventory Control Department to discuss product structure and replacement part requirements. Following this meeting, catalog and part numbers were requested. The Project Leader also turned over the items used in field-testing, along with a list containing the sources that items were obtained from. Technical Research contacted these vendors and verified/documented the specifications/ordering information. Technical Research initiated the inclusion of cautionary warning information addressing both strangulation hazards associated with ropes/playground equipment and advisory notice concerning obtaining a health checkup before beginning any physical fitness regimen to the kit. Specifications and bills of materials and production routings were established in June 2008. Product specifications were turned over to Production in July with production scheduled for November 2008 due to long lead times on one of the items placed into the kit. The JumpSnap Ropeless Jump Ropes arrived and the product was finally able to be packaged in December. Due to uncontrollable circumstances, the product was not released until January 2009. There were only a couple of minor problems in production; the most significant had to do with the amount of rope on the spools of “guide rope.” The spools were specified to have exactly 500 feet, but as many as 10 percent of them had slightly less. This caused the actual production run to close short of the number of kits planned. The vendor of the rope was contacted to remedy this problem. The vendor sent a number of replacement spools to make up for the shortages encountered.

Life Science Tactile Graphics Kit

(Continued)
This product will be similar to the Basic Science Tactile Graphics Kit. Technical Research met with the Project Leader and Model Shop in 2008 to discuss the possibility of scanning the already produced thermoformed patterns. Technical Research proposed a method of scanning and electronically generating screen art vs. tracing by hand and laying it out by hand. A variation of this process of scanning the line drawings was used for graphics templates in the Flip-Over Books. Scanning of actual tactile forms may prove to be more difficult. These molds were made from basic sketches that have been heavily modified to suit the needs of the vacuum-forming process. Early in the development process, there was discussion about the possibility of large format, offset or some other method of printing directly on to the vinyl sheets vs. screen-printing. There will be approximately 56 finished sheets, produced in sixteen various 3 and 4-up patterns. Even using a screen-printing palate limited to three to four colors on each grouping or pattern, it would still require 48 to 64 separate screen-printing setups to produce the entire kit, and this would include black as one of the colors, further restricting the colors that could be used on any one sheet. It appeared that none of the alternative methods of print on the controlled shrink vinyl that APH uses on many of its products would have a positive outcome. Most problems had to do with poor print quality, scaling (compression or expansion) or lack of compatibility of the inks to the vinyl, specifically trying to offset print. During the development of this product, Technical Research had located a vendor that was interested in finding a solution to this problem. This vendor worked extensively with their ink suppliers and found an ink that was compatible with our vinyl. These tests were 100% successful. This process would not only open the door for the expanded use of color in this product, but also allow realistic photo images to be printed on vinyl. The decision was made to proceed with this production method. Preliminary tests on scanning of raised tactile images were completed in late 2008. After work was completed on the first 4-up panel, the file was sent out to a vendor to have several vinyl sheets printed to verify the accuracy in registering the art to the vacuum-form molds. The vendor was to use a flat bed printing system. This method to obtain proof sheets was selected because it was the process used to generate field-testing materials for Flip-Over Concept Books – LINE PATHS. The print accuracy on these sheets appeared acceptable, and very limited production quantities could be obtained. After receiving print copies back and attempts to form them, the sheets were found to have very significant errors. It appeared that the print image was both oversized and had skewing of certain elements of the file. After additional investigation, it was found that the printed sheets did not match a plotted clear overlay generated from the original art file. Material was obtained for the vendor to run a second print test. This second test was better than the first, but it still appeared to be slightly oversized. Additional investigation turned up two additional problems, first the scans were made from the original cardboard mockups, in the process of generating the final fiberglass production vacuum-form mold, there is a slight amount of shrinkage; second, a mistake was made when the art was expanded to compensate for the amount of shrinkage in the vacuum-forming process. This shrinkage factor is typically not factored in when working from the vacuum-form pattern and working backward. The art was matched to the completed vacuum-form mold and the correction made. This file was given to the vendor with additional vinyl and again printed. This last printing again displayed skewing problems and issues that appeared as if the vendor had manipulated the file, changing positions of many but not all components of the file. Use of the flat bed printing method can no longer be recommended. Work on the scanning of the original prototype vacuum-form patterns from which the production art would be generated, began in the spring of 2009. After refining the process, Technical Research began the work of scanning and properly placing the scanned image into its correct location in the electronic file. Due to the size limitations of scanners available, patterns had to be broken down into four individual 8.5 inch by 11 inch sections and then be placed into a grid. Each scan was placed back in its original position on the grid/template. This was made more difficult because the prototype patterns were free hand made and had variances, some not adhering strictly to the established grid dimensions. Work on eight of the sixteen had been completed by Technical Research and turned over to the Project Leader by the end of June. The files provided to the Project Leader contain the scanned image, and tracings of the individual components that make up the item represented on the page. The Project Leader is able to “click” on items and color them, selecting colors that are appropriate for the item represented on the page. The scanned images also show the location/placement of the braille tags on each page. The Project Leader can then correctly place the corresponding print information in the file. Upon completion, the background scan is removed. Work on the remaining eight patterns will progress as time allows, with anticipated turn over to the Project Leader by the end of September. Once the file for each pattern is completed, it will be plotted on clear film and matched to the actual production vacuum form before being released to the printer.