Safe on the inside fun on the outside

The POPPY is a clothes iron that hides several innovative safety features beneath a playful exterior

How it works: It functions exactly like a regular iron. However if the user gets distracted and walks off, a sensor will detect this and allow the iron to hinge back on itself raising the hot plate off the clothing. No more scorched clothing.

Once the iron detects that the user has let go of the handle it hinges back into the safe parked position.

Only while in this parked position will the Poppy’s second major safety feature come into play. While in this position a locking pin is temporarily unlocked allowing the chord to safely detach if pulled from below. This safety feature prevents young children from pulling a hot iron down onto themselves. While in use this locking pin slots back into position preventing the chord from detaching unnecessarily.

Detachable chord

Roll back concept. This solution had a really nice look to it, the rolling back action would be nice but it had a major draw back in that it could potentially roll off the ironing board. To avoid this I could use an LDR to detect if the iron was to close to the edge of ironing board but this would add unwanted complexity and the possibility of failure.

Early concept tripod. Three pins lift hot plate off the clothing when iron is left unattended. Simple solution but it lacks the wow factor of the iron hinging back.

Basic principle

Final concept. Had the advantages of the roll back concept with the safety of the tripod concept