When item Engineer Bob Price’s wife came to him with a request, it provided an opportunity to push boundaries and get creative with solutions.

item Engineer Bob Price had a problem. Actually, his wife had the problem. As a high school marching band director, Mrs. Price is responsible for the storage and coordination of equipment. Among that lengthy list of equipment are bulky, oddly-shaped drum harnesses which proved to be one of the biggest challenges.

The Challenge
Drum harnesses are a stiff rack, generally composed of plastic and/or metal, that fit over a marching drummer’s shoulders and keep the drums at about waist-height. While harnesses are adjustable and fairly lightweight for long wear, the designs tend to not include a feature allowing them to collapse for storage.

Originally, Mrs. Price created a makeshift wooden structure to hold the harnesses. Time and gravity soon began to take their toll, however, and the rack was falling apart. After all, the wooden frame was meant to be but a temporary solution. A Design Engineer at item America, Bob Price was afforded the opportunity to get creative with the materials he worked with on a daily basis to develop a solution for his wife.

A Solution That Sticks
Using a base of item MB Building Kit Line 8 40×16 profiles anchored into a cinder block wall, Bob utilized versatile Lean Production Building Kit System D30 tubes to construct the rest of the rack. Each rack segment, at one meter long, was built to hold three harnesses.

In addition, the racks were created with the ability to lengthen them in the future, should the need arise when the band gets larger. As the finishing touch, the wall anchor was completed with blue and yellow cover profile in the Line 8 grooves – a visually appealing decision that has a second meaning as blue and yellow are the official colors of the Clear Spring High School Blazers.

The light, strong, and efficient design of the new rack was a great improvement of the two-by-four wooden boards it replaced. Not only was Bob accomplishing a task that would benefit his wife, her school, and the children in the marching band, but it showed off the flexibility and strength of the item Lean Production Building Kit System.

What kind of solution can item help you with?

This story was originally shared on item America’s blog page. To visit the blog and read the story in its original format, click here.