DESIGN NAME: Lucky-Kitty Cat Drinking Fountain
PRIMARY FUNCTION: Cat Drinking Fountain
INSPIRATION: Cats are genetically programmed to drink running water, so cats that are only given standing water usually don't drink enough - and this often leads to serious long-term health problems like urinary tract and/or kidney diseases. This drinking fountain encourages cats to drink plenty of water and helps cat-owners safeguarding the long-term health of their cat. With its three different drinking zones, the Lucky-Kitty Drinking Fountain caters for cats individual drinking habits. This is why virtually any cat will take to it.
UNIQUE PROPERTIES / PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The "Lucky-Kitty Drinking Fountain for Cats" is probably the first ever drinking fountain for cats, that really can be used on a daily basis. It's virtually silent, cat-friendly, spill-safe, extremely stable and and most importantly, it's hygienic - it's quick and easy to clean, because it is made of high-fired ceramic sanitary ware with a rounded design and hence no inaccessible nooks and crannies.
OPERATION / FLOW / INTERACTION: Simplified to the maximum possible, the Lucky-Kitty drinking fountain is build just from four parts. A lower shell, holding 1,5 liters of water, a special low-energy-comsumption pump, which is connected with a silikon-tube to the upper shell, which is simply put over the lower shell. Both shells are separated by a silicone-ring to avoid disturbing sounds in operation and fix the shells in place.
PROJECT DURATION AND LOCATION: It took us three years from the first concept and nearly a dozen prototypes until the final product.
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PRODUCTION / REALIZATION TECHNOLOGY: high-fired ceramic sanitary ware
SPECIFICATIONS / TECHNICAL PROPERTIES: 30 x 23 x 14 cm
Capacity: 1.5 l
Special Shipping packaging with foam-inlay
TAGS: Pet Supply, Cats, Ceramic, White, Fountain, Lucky-Kitty
RESEARCH ABSTRACT: We had our own panel of 300 cat-owners and their cats for market research, relating the drinking behavior of their cats and usability for the owners. 100 prototypes of the pre-series where delivered for practical testing. From these tests we got very important usability-input which we took in consideration for the final product.
CHALLENGE: The design is very difficult to produce in ceramics, because of the inside rounded ledge of the upper shell, so the hardest challenge was to meet the very special production-capabilities of the material ceramics, without giving up the projected design-concept.
ADDED DATE: 2016-04-04 13:31:09
TEAM MEMBERS (4) : Michael Heckers, Jürgen Failenschmid, C. Tauern and Lucky-Kitty
IMAGE CREDITS: Foto: Frank Fendler, Düsseldorf (http://www.fendlerstudios.de/)
PATENTS/COPYRIGHTS: Copyrights belong to Fountana GmbH & Co. KG, Lucky-Kitty
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