In today?s technological society, there are increasingly less physical demands on the locomotor system. However, despite that notion strength and function in the hand?s complex biomechanical system are in fact both needed to cope with daily life. The grip function is a main function in the hand and is used in many examples of scientific research, for instance when assessing physical health and predicting the probabilities of premature mortality.

High demands are set on all equipment used in emergency service work, where small margins can be the distinguishing factor between life and death during a rescue operation. It is important that tools such as ladders quickly and easily can be dismounted from a vehicle and still satisfy the regulatory requirements for securing loads during transport. The existing solution for getting ladders down from the roof of a fire engine requires a large manual effort from the user in an ergonomically unsound posture.In this degree project a new ladder holder is developed with focus on the user to solve the ergonomic problems and at the same time create a more compact design that can be adapted to several different types of ladders. After an initial pre-study with user-interviews and measurement of forces and distances a set of requirements was formulated that came to govern the project's direction. Creative methods were used to generate concepts that improved the function and through design solutions, calculations and testing in CAD a base for manufacturing of a new product was created.The result is a completely new type of ladder holder that minimizes the user's manual effort and simplifies the securing of ladders in the holder.

In a society where adults set the conditions for children?s play and generate modern and at times technically advanced products, fundamental characteristics like simplicity, opportunities for motor skills training and learning tend to be neglected. Owing to this, the Linköping-based company Time In wants to introduce a new multifunctional product, which differs from other products in shape and function and lives up to the often overlooked, basic characteristics in a toy.With Time In as the assigner, the purpose of this master thesis has been to use simple means to produce a "learning by playing" concept. Since Time In sells toys and products suitable for children in nurseries and preschools, the development of the products has therefore included a study of nursery and preschool environments.The thesis has been carried out within the Product Design subject area at the Department of Management and Engineering at Linköping University. Concept development has been done in three phases: the Preparation phase, the Design phase and the Presentation phase.

Over the last decade, the private insurance market has undergone a stable growth in turnover and growing demand for insurance products in all Member States of the European Union. Therefore, the creation of a single market in insurance will enable consumers to have access to wider choice of insurance products, and insurance companies to gain access to markets in various Member States and compete effectively. The EU legal framework for the insurance industry embraces the Treaty freedoms of services, establishment and capital, the EC Directives and the ECJ case-law. The present thesis identifies numerous factors that hinder the Community insurance market integration and offers possible remedies. The summary of the market obstacles is all-inclusive and reflects the responses to the questionnaires and the Commission surveys.

The competitive nature of the automotive industry has always implied a necessity to improve product development concerning time-to-market, cost and product quality. As capacity of computer-aided engineering (CAE) tools has evolved, so has the strive for simulation-driven design. Virtual durability testing using full vehicle models is one of many challenges posed in front of vehicle manufacturers when computer simulations are given a key role in product development.This thesis has been initiated as a preliminary step towards implementing dynamic virtual durability testing in the development of buses and coaches at Scania. The objective has been to assess the predictability of a full vehicle coach model and to what level of precision structural loads can be predicted. Previously performed proving ground testing of a Scania Touring coach has been the basis for the modelling and simulations in this thesis.A virtual model of the Scania Touring coach has been created in multi-body simulation software package MSC.Adams.

The following report is based on the graduate job course in CAD technician program year two. The work reflected in the report is done in collaboration with Hans-Erik Eldemark. This work includes the development of a progress bar for dishwashers.The execution of the thesis has involved a list of criteria with conditions and requirements, which after where weighted in a matrix. Subsequently, the product proposal was developed and has been divided into three categories, twist mechanisms, attachments and exterior design. Finally, suggestions have been designed in CATIA V5 and prototypes were produced using 3d-printing.

Northern Stories is a narrative video-project, mixed between how to work with the movieformat and the programs involved. As well as the complexity of how it can be to work in collaboration with a company and an investigation in how to evolve my design process. This from a designer?s point of view and with the intention to produce a finished product..

This thesis deals with cross-country ski clothing for non-competitive women. Women in this category look for different clothing features in comfort and aesthetics than male top athletes, for whom cross-country skiwear today often seems to be designed. In this thesis the demands of these women have been mapped out by an interview with a reference group of users. The ergonomics of exercising in the winter outdoors are naturally a base for the collection. The collection consists of three functional layers of garments.

This is a qualitative analysis based on interviews with five students, aged 17-19, all with an immigrant background and with a history of being successful in their school work. The students were interviewed twice with an interval of 1 to 1.5 years. The main purpose of this essay is to learn more about these students? experiences and to understand their conceptions of being students in the Swedish school system. Another aim is to put focus on the chosen target group, since it is a category of students that seldom gets attention in media or research.

There is something magical about shoes?They can create an irresistible desire or be the one thing that we want to get rid of the most at the end of a long day. When people by shoes the chose more out of appearance rather then comfort. The result is a fact. The feet feel tired and soar after a couple of hours and the only thoughts are about the aching feet that firmly object to the way there being treated.

In this master thesis a category of men otherwise often taken for granted is examined: noncriminal,non-violent men. With the help of in-depth interviews with young men who havepreviously lived a life with drugs and criminal behaviour, I examine the young men's identityand masculinity projects. To do this, I use theories by researchers R.W. Connell and MichaelS. Kimmel, among others.

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how the ongoing controversy surrounding the Internet, the phenomena of digitalization and file sharing will affect the music industry in the form of the ?big five? labels. Furthermore the thesis aims to present a recipe of strategies for the companies? survival by studying their situation through a theoretical perspective in conjunction with a comparative analysis with industries facing the digitalization challenge. The theoretical contribution lies in the strategic perspective at an industry level.

There are certain organizations that manage to handle risk in such a successful way that they almost stay error-free, in spite of the fact that they daily face the risks of accidents. These organizations are usually given the name High Reliability Organizations (HRO). While the most common example is that of a nuclear plant the variety of what organizations can fit into the category is extensive.The purpose of this study is to describe safety culture and theories about HRO and how these can be found in practise within an organization.This qualitative research uses influences of ethnography in its method. The ethnographical approach was picked due to the field of the study and the cultural context in which it is set.The results of the study identify a number of elements sorted into four themes. These themes are deemed compatible or non-compatible with relevant existing theories.

I denna rapport redovisas arbetsgången för produktutvecklingen av ett rullstolsunderrede med nya design- och konstruktionslösningar. Det slutliga konceptet är ett underrede med två centrala konstruktionslösningar; en hydraulcylinder som medger vertikal sitthöjdsjustering, samt en vaggfunktion i sittplattan som medger ökad balans vid vinkeljustering. Samtliga funktioner på underredet har anpassats för att erbjuda ett enklare och renare ramverk..

This thesis was performed as assignment from Fazer Food Services. The aim was to survey which food additives that were present in the products in the quotation list of one of their suppliers to the Education and Nursing segment. The aim also was to perform a theoretical analysis of these food additives and to make recommendations which food additives are acceptable and which should be excluded from the products in the future. The recommendations are not published in this report, for more information Fazer Food Services can be contacted. Food additives which have already been approved are regarded as safe according to the safety evaluation methods available at the time of approval.