The existing tobacco can dispensing system had one major drawback- it was too tall to fit between the shelves of many retail locations. But shrinking the height of the front loading dispensing chutes would mean less product stocking capacity.

The solution was to hide the loading openings behind a fold down graphic header. When new chutes are added to the system a wider graphic is substituted. This retrofit can be easily done in the store by snapping additional chutes on the ends and adding extra header clips as needed.

The concept was first developed in foam core, then presented in hand made acrylic models (top two images)

Molding details were tested out by making laser stereo lithography models (SLA) of the parts before going to tool. Client presentations could be made with these fully functioning detailed models weeks before the first shots became available. (third image)

Finally, fits, snaps and tolerances were then adjusted in the 3D files based on the performance of the SLA part.

(Design development and engineering)