Introduction
Ramen is a very popular dish in eastern culture and has existed for over 200 years. It was
first made in China and soon expanded to Japan were remained very popular. Because it has
existed in these regions for so long the locals have adopted a certain way of consuming it. With
chopsticks being the most common utensils in the east, many people have learned to enjoy the
noodles first and then finish their broth at the end of the meal by drinking it straight from the
bowl. Despite its long history, Ramen is relatively new to the rest of the world.
With its first appearance in the US in the form of instant ramen in 1973. From their
demand for ramen has just gone up. With the introduction of this Raman has become a fast,
convenient and affordable meal that can be eaten by anyone anywhere, but one problem remains.
The expansion of ramen doesn’t mean that other eastern things are as much of a hit. Chopsticks
aren’t as mainstream as spoons or forks in the US because they are much harder to use. Along
with this not many people are a fan of the broth that remains at the end of a meal and would
rather have it along with their noodles.
To help with this issue we have made an easy-to-use utensil that is specifically designed
to help those who can’t use chopsticks. Along with this, it will also help the individual get more
broth in with every bite so that their meal is more enjoyable and so that they don’t throw away or
waste the broth. This invention is something that is much more familiar to the rest of the world
and doesn’t require that you learn how to use chopsticks when all you want to do is enjoy some
ramen. Not to mention that buying it is not going to put a dent I your wallet. Price wise it would
be rather close to a normal utensil, so anyone can afford it without needing to invest much to try
it.
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There are other people in the world who have already noticed a need for an invention like
this and have attempted to do something to fulfill this role. However, most of these inventions
are ineffective due to the shape of their designs and can be engineered to improve one’s
experience of taking enough broth and ramen in one go.
Body
The most popular product made forming an effective method for broth and ramen
consumption at once is the MoMA spork. To pick up the broth, the spork must be faced
horizontally. However, all the broth is lost when having to pick up ramen as the spork must be
faced down. Similarly, the same could be said when doing this in vice versa. You could pick up
ramen first, but when trying to pick up broth, the noodles get in the way and may not allow for
much broth to be picked up and may even cause some noodles to be dropped due to this contact.
This product has the basic idea down but fails to execute this with the desired and efficient ease
because it is not ergonomic in its design.
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Another similar product in picking up food and broth at once is TiTo’s spork. However,
due to the material of this spork being titanium, it is easier to bend than stainless steel even if this
allows for the spork to be much more lightweight. Though this spork does allow more broth to be
picked up than the MoMa spork, it still has the same issues as the MoMa spork in that it is harder
to pick up ramen and broth at the same time because of moving the spork in different directions.
To combat this issue, we created a design consisting of combining a fork and straws in a
new way (combo fork straw). Rather than a spoon being infused with fork tines, we have decided
to have a fork with 2 straws directly underneath it. They are conjoined towards the handle of the
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fork so that the top of this handle serves as the opening for drinking broth. This design allows for
easy picking up of the noodles with the fork while still being able to drink the desired amount of
broth with the straws under the fork. Additionally, it avoids the potential discomfort of having
the noodles in the way, and there is no risk of broth falling because we can straight up drink the
broth using the straw. The straws must also bend to the curve of the fork to ensure the efficient
shape of the fork for picking ramen. Compared to the MoMa and TiTo spork, the separation of a
spoon and straws allow for more ramen and broth to be consumed rather than infusing a fork and
spoon utensil as one. The material we use for this design is stainless steel so we can always wash
it over and reuse the tool again.
Production process:
Not only will the physical design of the combo fork spoon provide much more efficiency
and ease in picking up ramen and broth at once, but there are other features that make this combo
utensil an appealing item compared to the MoMa spork. To begin, our combo fork spoon would
be priced at $15 each, which is much less in price than MoMa’s $27 spork on Amazon.
The product itself is about (-) and weighs around (-). Calculating the material cost as well as the
labor cost we should be able to sell the item at (-) and make a profit of (-). We plan to sell our
products on amazon where the customer
Stainless steel, 8-9 inches.
We use stainless steel for our material choice because we want the item to be reusable and
decreased the use of disposable tableware.
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Conclusion
Overall, our product combined the use of a fork and a straw allowing user of this product
to have a greater experience in eating the ramen and drinking the broth at the same time. The
item itself is reusable after washing and this can decrease the use of disposable tableware
Works Cited
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Engineering Proposal + Presentation:
The Assignment:

• You will need to write the process of the innovation itself, and the process of building the
  innovation. You will be required to address COST, TIME, MATERIALS,
  DESCRIPTION OF MATERIALS, … and all other necessary and important factors.
  (These components can be rough estimates and theoretical if need be. You can draw this
  information from the production and data of similar and previously invented
  innovations.)

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