Swagelok – Isle of Man, creating the “Magnetic Coaster for Space” prototype

Swagelok- Isle of Man are a fluid systems expert in both product design, manufacture and solution focused engineering. They are also a regional partner through Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce for our Leaders Award competition which asks pupils aged 3-19 the question “If you were an engineer, what would you do?”. As part of this partnership, Swagelok have selected a pupil’s idea submitted to our Leaders Award competition to turn it into a working prototype over the 2024/2025 academic year.

Eryn’s original competition design.

Pupil designer Eryn, a pupil in Year 3, will see her engineering idea the ‘Magnetic Coaster for Space’ turned into a reality! Her idea is centered around astronauts struggling to put their drink down when in space as their juice box would float away, her solution to this was to design a concept for a magnetic coaster to keep their drink securely tethered..

Introduction to the ProtoTeam

Dave Parkes is our lead engineer at Swagelok Isle of Man and he first took this design and established the best approach to bring this to life and this is how we then brought John Cairn’s into the prototype team as he required 3D printing expertise.

Why have they chosen this pupil idea?

When presented with the Isle of Man’s competition finalists, Swagelok selected a design by local student at Kewaigue Primary School (Eryn) which was a concept for a “Magnetic Coaster for Space”. The reason behind selecting this particular design centred around Swagelok’s long history with space exploration. They currently have parts on the International Space Station and the Mars Rover and continue to partner with NASA as a preferred supplier.

Starting the prototype

John was then able to take Eryn’s design and Dave’s approach and create not only the magnetic space coaster but also a cage to house the juice box and another to fit a juice bottle too! During this process they did encounter some issues such as finding magnets which would be up to the job and strong enough and the colours of plastic used in the design process to make it also aesthetically pleasing, which they over came through trial and error, and remaking the product until they were happy with the final design.