EZip (Zipper Attachment for People With Arthritis)

The idea for this project is something that had been rattling around my head ever since my grandpa started to develop arthritis followed by Parkinson's. I was pretty young, but I distinctly remember having to help him use zippers (jacket, bag, trousers etc.).
As such, when I saw this contest I wanted to try out the idea I had:

A zipper that can be used by anyone (even by people with grip and mobility issues)

I also wanted the whole experience to pose a bit of a challenge construction wise, so I started with the following criteria:

• To use only recycled materials (aside from the glue)
• To make sure the system was as ergonomic as it could be
• To make sure the system was extremely light

This Instructable will detail not only the way to construct your own EZip unit, but also all the design process and work that it took to arrive to where to product is today.

To build an E-ZIP unit you will need:

- Recycled balsa wood (found it in my nearest garbage dump)*

- Scrap faux leather (I sourced mine from an old wallet I bought many years ago)

- A piece of looped thread (found mine on the tag of a shirt)

- Super glue

- Mounting Spray

- 99 Proof Alcohol

* Alternatively you could also use cardboard if you can't find any balsa

Before I actually got the designing and building part of this project, I had to document myself and see what already existed in the market.

I found products that worked similarly to what we wanted to create:

They were attachments to a pre-existing zipper (meaning there was no special zipper per-se).

The first thing I found was a loop attachment (which attached like a keyring) which would be operated by inserting the finger of the user inside and pulling.

The next was an external device which could be gripped with the whole hand and would have a sort of hook that would be used in tandem with the aforementioned loop attachment.

Finally, I found what looked like a bigger zipper that would attach to a regular zipper.

Having found a few ideas, I knew what direction I wanted to take shape wise. Before that however, I wanted to see which motions would work best.

Having seen my grandpa struggle with pinching motions (like the one required to actuate a zipper), I knew I wanted to move as far as possible from that kind of grip.

I went to my grandma's house (who also has some mild arthritis) to see what her natural hand position looked like, and saw that it was one where her hands were almost flat whilst also retaining some spacing between each finger.

The mechanism that I had to come up with would have to be operated from that position, as if the hand is in a comfortable position it can exert the necessary force to perform the zipping action.

As with anything I design, I first sketched out some ideas.

I knew the parts of the hand that I wanted to use as well as the motions that I wanted to avoid (the pinch). With that in mind, I developed 3 solutions:

• The Ring
• The Rod
• The Hammerhead

I knew that the most ergonomic one would be the Hammerhead (as that shape sort of forms around the fingers), so I decided to move forwards with it.

The first step is to gather two pieces of leather and one of balsa wood. You want to then use superglue to make a sort of sandwich (where the two pieces of leather act as the bread and the balsa wood acts as the filling). Once done, cut off any excess so that you are left with a rectangle containing the 3 aforementioned layers.

Download the attached pdf, cut a rough rectangle around one of the pattern pieces and using some spray adhesive stick it on the leather+balsa sandwich.

Once that is done, cut out the shape using a very sharp blade (I used an x-acto knife).

After removing the paper pattern (just by unsticking it), the next step is to make a hole on the top of the pattern using a Dremel.

Finally, using the thread from an old clothing tag, you loop it in inside and then around it itself thus creating a very simple knot.

Now all you have to do is use the same looping technique to attach it to a zipper and it is ready to be used!