A milestone in most peoples’ lives is when they learn to swim, opening up a lifetime of water based fun and activities.

Shore Swim had built a successful business supplying swimming instruction to children. When the business owner had an idea for an innovative swimming aid, he turned to 4D Products to help him realise his vision.

The inventor wanted to create a new product that could be used at several key stages of the journey when learning to swim – a multi functional swimming aid.

4D Products were commissioned to turn this vision into a visually striking, easy to use, modular product.

We developed and presented a range of design options to the client for review and feedback, allowing us to quickly focus on one preferred design.

This was an unusual object to prototype as the manufactured product has an exact buoyancy, provided by the EVA foam material. We needed to mimic this so the prototype could be assessed in the real world, by a swimming instructor, used by their pupil. The quickest way to create such a prototype was to hand craft one out of a block of EVA foam material at the dimensions of the final product.

When the design was proven to work in the desired manner, the next challenges were to find a manufacturer capable of making the product, and to get the product through the CE marking process.

4D identified appropriate suppliers in The Far East for both aspects.

Our 3D CAD Design experts turned the approved concept design into a fully detailed CAD model. Consideration had to be given to the material properties of the EVA foam to avoid potential splitting of the product when in use in its physically demanding environment.

Aquaplane has instantly attracted interest from swimming schools and retailers.

Visit the Aquaplane website for latest news and updates –www.aqua-plane.com

Aquaplane is now available at Argos, one of the UKs biggest and best high-street retailers.