Folding Camping Toilet with Seat and Urine Separation
A compact folding toilet where the missing feature was separation — a functional insert designed to sit on top of the client's existing product.
The client was launching a folding camping toilet brand. The product folds flat and transports easily — and that simplicity was exactly the problem: it had no seat and no urine separation system.
The problem
Adding function to a product whose selling point is compactness:
- Separation needs geometry, and geometry needs volume. A separator is a shaped channel; a folding product has almost no permanent internal space to put one in.
- It must survive folding. Anything added has to either fold with the product or come out cleanly and pack alongside it.
- Cleanability is not negotiable for this category. Every internal corner and radius is a maintenance decision.
- The client’s constraint was decisive: it had to fit the product they already had, not require a new one.
The approach
- Design the function as an insert. Rather than redesigning the folding structure, the functional part was designed to sit on top of the existing product — preserving the client’s tooling and their compactness claim.
- Separation channel shaped for flow and for cleaning, with radii sized so the part can be rinsed rather than scrubbed.
- Seat geometry integrated into the same insert, so one added component delivers both missing features instead of two.
- Mouldable in one piece, keeping the added part to a single tool.
The result
A redesigned functional module that fits the client’s existing folding toilet, supplied with drawing and STEP files for manufacture.
Where this applies
Products that need a missing feature added without invalidating existing tooling. Designing the addition as a separate part is usually cheaper than reopening the tool — and always faster.
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