Meet Rosalie, product design engineer

Hey Rosalie. Nice to speak with you for a moment. Tell who are you, how long have you worked at van Cappellen Consultancy and what is your position.

“Yes nice to have these conversations. Well you said it, I am Rosalie. I am 22 years old and from January 1 I work at van Cappellen Consultancy in the position of Product Design Engineer. This position was not there yet and I must say that this position suits me very well!”

Product Design Engineer, mouthful. But what exactly does your job entail?

“Very simply explained, I develop products in which noise and vibrations are reduced. This can be from a customer request, but the biggest mover of ideas is our colleague Sandor, project engineer. His idea engine is constantly on.”

That sounds really cool! What products come out of your design brain?

“Not a lot yet, but that’s because I’ve only been working at Van Cappellen Consultancy since January 1. Pretty soon after I started, I was commissioned to develop a cabinet that reduces noise from air conditioners and heat pumps. This idea came because of the new laws and regulations that came into force to reduce the noise of air conditioners and heat pumps. This idea had been on the shelf for a while, but there was no capacity to actually initiate the development. So I started working on this idea right away.”

Seems like a tough challenge to me. How do you tackle something like this?

“Tough not necessarily, but immensely challenging, especially since there was a tough deadline on it! As I told you before, my current position didn’t exist yet. Fortunately, I had already gained experience in during my studies, internships and side jobs in the field. I don’t have much work experience in setting up projects. So I had to go back to the books to find out how to do it again. Fortunately there are also many colleagues who help me with questions and have very good ideas. But how did I go about it?

During the product development process, I was in the lead as an engineer. I looked at whether an idea could be done, always keeping in mind that ideas should also be manufacturable. You start the process by immersing yourself in the target group to design the product to meet their needs. You come up with the craziest ideas and then weigh them up against the compiled requirements from your research.

Then I started looking at the idea and researching which materials are soundproof. Much of this information is of course already known to us because we do a lot of noise reduction on yachts. But this product had to be different, with different materials because this is really going to be in the consumer’s home. And the eye wants something too.

After the materials have been chosen, you start working on the design. Here you take into account many facets, everything to let as little noise through as possible. And of course you have to make sure that the air conditioner or heat pump gets enough air supply. So quite a calculation. Eventually you make choices between concepts like that, and that’s how the current design was developed. Then the closet was developed from idea to prototype through choices in materials, a lot of research and testing.

Nice to tell you that the Brockx, the name of the cupboard, and the new website went online last week. There are already several interested parties already, which is nice!”

Aren’t you secretly a little proud?

“Yes, actually I am. But especially very cool that I immediately get the chance to develop an entire product, take the lead and monitor the progress, that’s very instructive.”

I can imagine. And now that it’s done, on to the next project?

“Well, one member of the Brockx family is finished, now the rest. We are going to develop it further so that it fits any type of air conditioner or heat pump. But yes, there is also a new project already waiting, something with plants that I am really looking forward to working on. As I said, Sandor’s idea engine is never off.”

You’re definitely going to do that. Hey, you haven’t worked here very long. But besides developing the Brockx, what is your very best moment so far?

“Before I came to work here, I obviously studied very closely what van Cappellen Consultancy did. In the conversations beforehand, you also find out more and more about the services. So I already knew a lot, but never saw it. Until Willen Jan took me to a customer where an inspection was being done. And exactly at the time we were there, work was being done on the insulation of the entire yacht so I saw exactly what was being done with our advice. And of course it’s very cool to be on a yacht like that.”