Elisava students create armrests with recycled materials for TMB

January 9, 2023

Elisava and TMB reusable armrests

Students of the Degree in Design and the Degree in Industrial Design Engineering at Elisava, under the strategic direction of the innovation unit of the Barcelona Design Center (BcD), have promoted a co-creation pilot project focused on the design and creation of armrests for the benches on the platforms of the Barcelona metro for Transportes Metropolitanos de Barcelona (TMB).

The initiative, which comes from the innovation area of ​​TMB, TMBinnova and the Accessibility service, was born with the aim of creating an object to make metro stations more accessible for people with functional diversity and is an opportunity to respond to the Real State decree and new accessibility decree of Catalonia (pending publication), which establishes the obligatory nature of the installation of this type of element. The project is part of a circular economy process launched by TMBinnova itself to make use of recycled bus elements that are already out of service. This fact highlights TMB's objectives in terms of sustainability, giving a second useful life to some of the elements of vehicles in the scrapping process.

In addition, the installation of this element of co-creation comes along with that of the ischial seats, elements that allow the lumbar rest of the users and that are also aligned with the Universal Accessibility service of Transportes Metropolitanos de Barcelona to improve the comfort of the passengers, and of the Metro maintenance teams.

armrests

The armrests feature the will to give a new use to waste products, since they are made from the stainless steel tubes of buses already withdrawn from service. In the manufacturing process, industrial processes have been minimized to make it more sustainable and guarantee the minimum ecological footprint.

This prototype is universal, ergonomic and can be adapted to all benches in the Barcelona metro network, regardless of the type of bench. The armrests are created with 30-gauge steel tubes to prevent deterioration and resist acts of vandalism, they are non-porous (anti-graffiti) and do not transmit stray currents. The armrest profile is round, as it is more comfortable for the user, and the surface is rough to facilitate support.

Two armrests will be installed on each bench at a distance of 50 cm between them, thus allowing the user to lean on and help themselves to sit down or get up. The design has been created with the ergonomics hand in hand with the user and the prototypes are located on the benches that are lined up at the doors of the corresponding wagons for users with reduced mobility.

In this project have participated nine Elisava students of the Degree in Design and the Degree in Industrial Design Engineering, tutored by professors Salva Fàbregas and Tona Monjo; Eugenia Marti, director of the Department of Innovation of the Barcelona center de Disseny, and the innovation, accessibility and user departments of TMB.

ischial seats

The ischial seats in the stations allow lumbar rest in these spaces. Thus, and as for the armrests, the ischial seats have also been made from bars and sheets from the interior of disused buses, in this case, from the 3300 and 3400 series. A total of 8 have been manufactured, with two different designs corresponding to two models with different heights.

Metro users can now test and make use of the armrests in the Universidad and La Sagrera stations on L1. The pilot test will last 6 months to revalidate the prototypes developed before their industrialization and implementation in the entire Barcelona metro network.

You may be interested in continuing reading ...

Translate »