Jackbord

The client need

Jack Penman developed a computer unit, called the “Jackbord”, to drive all sorts of gadgets and robots – that kids could build themselves like an intelligent ‘Meccano set’.

Part of his vision was to restore the Kiwi DIY know-how that’s fading in younger generations. He saw a lot of technology consumption in a wasteful ‘disposable culture’ without understanding where it all comes from or how it works. Jack wanted to instill some new creativity, along with resourcefulness and sustainability.

The Jackbord needed to be versatile, robust, and affordable for all school children, and suitable for teaching robotics. Jack’s colleague in their charitable trust, John Lewis, approached several engineering companies to produce a frame for the unit, but they were all too expensive. Not feasible for the accessible low-cost technology they had in mind.

But then John visited Metco and came back ‘smiling like a Cheshire Cat’ according to Jack.

The Metco experience in the client’s words

A Big Leap Ahead

“When we visited Paul, he seemed to really get the vision of our project and embraced it. It wasn’t long before he was having fun playing with a Jackbord. Then the bombshell – he offered to produce the frame for free, effectively sponsoring us. Wow, fantastic!

This really enabled us to get it out there at low cost, so no kids would miss out because of money issues.”

Fitting the Bill – Practical and Robust

“We decided the Jackbord frame needed to be Aluminium, rather than plastic, for durability and to be bolted onto.

Jack at Metco walked us through the manufacturing process and explained everything – a lot of stuff I hadn’t realised. I was inspired by their experience and hi-tech capability which gave me ideas.

He helped us to find better ways of doing things – such as bending 20 angle brackets at a time instead of individually as we had done before.

The end result was a truly robust unit, surviving the ‘school bag knock around’ test. If the kids do break a Jackbord in extreme situations, they can repair it themselves and learn something in the process.”