Cord Keeper Pro
Labor and delivery nurses stored four $5,000 NICU sensors in a plastic bag, and the cords tangled at the moment of highest clinical demand. We built a wall mounted unit that retracts each cord automatically for easier organization.
Team result
Delivered a working prototype on schedule despite supply chain delays.
- Sensors
- 4
- Cost each
- $5,000
- Instructions needed
- 0
- Retraction
- Automatic
Key takeaways
- Requirements came from a nurse interview: portable, organized, no learning curve, cheap enough to replace a familiar system.
- Pull to retrieve, release to retract. Four independent cylinders, one per sensor.
- Our clock springs never arrived before the expo. We quickly switched to elastic cord on bearings and still delivered a working prototype.
- Every first time tester used it correctly with no instructions.
Engineering deep dive
Engineering notes
Original mechanism
A custom clock spring stores energy as the cord is pulled and drives the cylinder back on release. We designed the whole unit around it.
The pivot
With the springs missing, a teammate proposed elastic cord wrapped around bearings inside each cylinder. Pulling the sensor stretches the elastic; releasing it rotates the cylinder and rewinds the cord. Elastic degrades over time, so production would need a different part, but it proved the concept completely.
Validation testing
Support reactions and ideal pull angles for the wall mount; magnet pull and adhesion; velcro hold; elastic elongation, durability, and cycling strength; rubber flexibility and friction for consistent cord grip.
Usability
We handed it to people who had never seen it and gave no instructions. Every participant operated it successfully. Successfully achieving our most important requirement.