Innovation

Accessible shelf mechanism

Interlocking plastic shelves designed for a newspaper display

A second prototype of the accessible shelf mechanism

Accessible shelf mechanism

1/3

Two mechanical concepts are shown here. One, a counterbalanced wall shelf design designed and made by Chris Yonge for the Center for Accessible Housing in Raleigh, NC, allows users with arthritis and limited ability to raise their arms to pull kitchen storage shelves down to counter top level. The second, developed for Santa Cruz Industries in California, is a deceptively simple interlocking shelf that installs rapidly without tools or additional components.

Chris Yonge's name is on six approved patents, one being the utility patent US 8,444,385 for a continuously variable gear and propeller blade pitch adjustment mechanism that was developed as a personal project between 2009 and 2014

Varicruz history

1/1

Three way slot together furniture legs

1/1

Laser or CNC cut manufacture doesn't have to mean simple slot together designs: these table column prototypes by StudioCruz for MakersFactory use a three-way slotted support for additional stability.