FEA Optimisation of a Wall-mounted Baby Changing Unit

The British Standard for baby changing units (BS EN 12221-2:2008+A1:2013) imposes strict structural safety requirements for commercial and domestic baby changing units. These include safe operation under static loads of up to 20 kg. Under pressure from competitors, a leading supplier of childcare equipment has recently opted to switch its manufacturing methods to save costs. The manufacturers have to be confident that their blow-moulded components satisfy the British Standards. However, since new tooling costs are considerable, it is not cost-effective to design, build and test experimentally a large number of prototypes. Instead, the iterative design process was conducted computationally using finite element analysis. The final design (not shown) conformed to the British Standard.

The iterative design process was conducted computationally using finite element analysis.

The final design (not shown) conformed to the British Standard. This was achieved at considerably less cost than that required to implement a full experimental programme.