Aeriform

Revolution is in the AIR. Aeriform is an innovative product-service system aimed at reducing marine micro-pollution by counteracting the excessive use of washing machines. 

Based on the great power of ozone, Aeriform is an additional equipment that allows to sanitize and refresh all types of garments in fifteen minutes. Designed to fit in every room, Aeriform is a user-friendly and useful piece of furniture that would help you take care of your clothes and therefore prolong their lives. Aeriform is the new waterless and effortless way to make your clothes brand new. This project has been developed during the Circular Design Lab (2020-2021) held at Politecnico by Professors S. Maffei, M. Bianchini, P. Bolzan and M. Gelsomini.

SUSTAINABILITY AS A CHALLENGE
The huge problem of micro-plastics emissions in the environment has a lot to do with the fashion industry and in particular with laundry activities excessively performed in households.
It has been discovered that 9 million microfibers are released into the environment every 6 kilos loads. This means that every year we are guilty of freeing almost one thousand five hundred million microfibers in the oceans. How might we reduce the use of traditional washing machines in order to release less micro-plastics? How might we change in better the way laundry activities are performed? These questions guided the development of the product.

THE POWER OF OZONE
Ozone is a natural gas composed of three oxygen atoms and which has powerful sterilizing properties. Indeed, ozone is able to destroy bacteria and viruses as well as to eliminate strong odours. These reactions happen thanks to the third oxygen atom which sticks to odour or bacteria molecules and slowly dismantles their walls injuring their cells. In this way bacterial cells can no longer maintain their shape and they eventually die. This process is called oxidation. The oxidation process is preferable to other types of purification techniques since it does not leave any type of chemical residue but only an oxygen molecule (O2). Therefore, ozone cleaning technology is used for many applications such as air sanitizing, equipment sterilization, water purification as well as commercial laundering. Besides, being in the aeriform state, ozone is able to penetrate in fabric fibers and not only attack bacteria and remove odors but also counteract soils, greases and certain types of biological stains. In this way, it is possible to clean clothes without damaging fabrics.

THE PRODUCT
Aeriform’s technology is able to transform the breathable oxygen (O2) present in the ambient air and transform it into ozone (O3) which has great sanitizing properties. An Aeriform sanitizing cycle lasts around 15 minutes and has many advantages in terms of water, energy, labor and time saving. Thanks to a circular process, when the cycle ends, ozone will decay and become oxygen again.

Aeriform is designed to be an additional equipment to the washing machine to refresh and sanitize clothes thanks to the great properties of ozone on textiles and fabrics. Up to four gaments and one pair of shoes can be sanitized at a time and clothes are easily placed into the cabinet using standard hangers. After the cycle, clothes will not need to be ironed or folded: they will be ready to be hanged back in the closet! Aeriform is mostly thought for those who spend the day out for work or pleasure and need to change outfits frequently.

BRAND IDENTITY
Aeriform is a versatile product. Its unrecognizable shape could fit in any kind of environment. It is available in different colors and finishings in line with its brand identity. The color palette takes inspiration from the multiple shades of air and they are provided with both matte or shiny finishing, as shown in the next page. The outer case and the cable, which always visible, can be customized through the app.

THE PACKAGING
Aeriform is delivered home in its original packaging designed to be useful to the user during the installation phase. Inside the packaging the user will find the assembled product, the wall attachment bar and a small box containing the screws and fishers necessary to hang the product on the wall. On the inner side of the package the instructions to install Aeriform are printed. This allows to minimize paper waste and fully exploit the box. The packaging, once opened, shows also the double possible height: the user can decide wether to install Aeriform at 1,40 m or 1,30.

THE APP
By scanning the QR printed on the packaging the user is redirected to the official app where tutorials and tips to install the product can be easily found. When the installation phase is completed, the user can start setting up his Aeriform by following the instructions on the app.

THE SERVICE
Aeriform’s service is subscription based. With an initial purchase of 60 euros the customer buys the analogic product (without the electronic components and hardware). Then by paying a monthly fee he can lease the hardware with all the components that are needed to make Aeriform work. This kind of subscription model on the one hand ensures a continuous income for the start-up that in this way has the possibility to pay all the backstage staff and technicians and on the other hand guarantees maintenance and support to the users during the whole product lifecycle. The leasing model also allows to drastically reduce the price of the whole device. Indeed, the first year the user will pay less than 130 euros to have an Aeriform and from the second year on the only expense required will be the one needed to pay the lease, which will be less than 70 euros for the whole year.

TECHNICAL ASPECTS
Aeriform is a very complex product, with many standard components but also many parts designed and produced ad hoc. The philosophy behind this product was to use the same material as much as possible and for as many parts we could in order to make Aeriform a circular product.
This is the reason why the most used material is Polypropylene (PP) which has some good structural and aesthetic characteristics. All the bigger components are designed to be produced by injection moulding and therefore also the complexity and number of molds needed were taken into account during the design phase. Parts are designed to be easily extracted from their molds.
PP was also chosen for coherence. Indeed, the material selected to manifacture the foldable shell is a particular type of polypropylene called XPP which has great features such as gas resistance and compression rate. This makes Aeriform mostly monomateric, with the exception of standard components and wall attachment, and easily recyclable.

CONCLUSIONS

Aeriform makes the difference. It not only benefits the environment and people by preserving the health of the biosphere and being a time-saving product, but it also benefits clothes. According to ISTAT, in 2019 Italy counted twenty four thousand families composed on average by three members. It has also been estimated that households perfom on average 3,5 loads every week. Starting from this, we did some calculations in order to demonstrate the actual advantages of using Aeriform. If we consider that Aeriform would allow people to reduce the use of the washing machine of 2/3, a single household with Aeriform would prevent 1 435 500 000 micro-fibers from being released in the ocean every year.

Quite impressive. And this would happen without any extra effort, without wasting water, using chemical detergents or other resources.
Is it magic?
No, it’s just the power of nature. The power of air.
It’s Aeriform. A new form of cleaning.