The pineapple is a unique fruit with unique problems. It is actually a multiple fruit consisting of coalesced berries. Once it flowers, the individual fruits of the flowers join together to create what is commonly referred to as a pineapple. This makes the peeling of pineapple a unique problem. Not only is the skin hard, it is highly undulating and goes upto a centimetre deep at nodes of the flowers forming the eyes of the pineapple which are inedible.
Once the design was shortlisted to a blade with features, the form exploration started. As the exploration continued, the edges turned into smoother curves, both out of the need to maintain lesser corners and the manufacturing constraints. Finally, it was suggested that the peeeler could be one single metal sheet bent into a knife, thus achieving the initial aims of achieving a pure product with very less, almost no distractions.
The final concept drew influences from Aldor’s 1992 knives designed by Pep Sant and Ramon Bigas.
(IDC 2012)
