CSI's design development engineers and affiliated agents develop products from the most basic sketch phase, to 3-D, to final tangible product.  From our U.S.A. headquarters, we work closely with affiliates and agents in Asia, Europe and beyond who are involved in either manufacturing or marketing CSI products.

INVENTOR RICK SHAPIRO’S STORY ABOUT PANCAKE WHEEL AXLES

BEACH DAYDREAMING

TThe idea for a pancake thin wagon first popped in my head over the summer of 1998.  I had been daydreaming about locals in Virginia Beach carting their overstuffed wagons and various carts on and off the beach-always loaded with beach stuff. I wondered why no one had invented a cart that would fold flat so it could be easily stowed at home or in a car.  My ideas soon evolved into crude sketches and more thinking.

During law school I had worked as a patent searcher for a prominent patent law firm in Arlington, Virginia.  My job was to search the U.S. patent office library and report on whether a client’s invention was “old news” and already invented, or was something no one had done, or somewhere in between.  At times fascinating, at times very boring.

THE EARLY PLAN:  THINK LIKE A MANUFACTURER

I studied everything--hand trucks, wagons, carts, anything that folded…looking for ideas.  I built silly mockups out of cardboard, wood, and foam insulation in my garage.  One day an idea suddenly popped in my head to have the entire wheel and tire axle pivot and fold right inside the wagon. I obsessively modeled, sketched, and much later filed for patent for wagon and cart designs arising from this original revelation that could mark a major change in the design of

FROM MOCKUP TO PROTOTYPES

There were so many details to work out to create a working, sturdy wagon or cart that will fold to only inches thin. While my very first patent was pending, I didn’t wait to act: I located a local fabricator and built working wagon and cart models, which took months.

 I eventually filed numerous other patent applications applying my new “pivoting wheel axle”  to a wide variety of other consumer wheeled products. My design co. is called “Pancake Wheel, Ltd.” www.pancakewheel.com

DAYDREAMS TO TANGIBLE PRODUCTS

Fortunately, there are design and marketing folks at Compact Solutions that dream like inventors do!!  They are willing to embrace a “dream” and take risks to develop compact wheeled product solutions, such as fold flat carts, wagons and wheelbarrows.