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Umbrella built to withstand heavy wind

June 10th, 2009 by James

The rainy season has started in Japan, and stores are putting their umbrellas on display. Here’s a clip from Fuji TV news showing a 7150 yen umbrella that is specially designed to survive strong winds:



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9 Comments »

Comment by pcurve
2009-06-10 09:28:09

That’s great… but I was hoping to see it can withstand being flipped in-side-out. But the look of it, probably not…

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Comment by Kitty
2009-06-10 16:29:35

That ROCKS!

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Comment by Mary Witzl
2009-06-10 17:53:54

What I’m waiting for is an umbrella that will cry out to me when I leave it on the train. I’d be willing to shell out more than 7,150 yen for that.

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Comment by JeanRob
2009-06-10 18:48:34

Those are “Senz” umbrellas.
Take a look at Nr 3
http://www.oddee.com/item_96678.aspx

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Comment by Vince
2009-06-11 05:14:43

We had a titanium umbrella with special fabric 10 years ago in Belgium, it was only used for scientific experiments though.
With a manmade storm it could easily lift a grown human.
I’d like to see this toy lift someone up from the ground, see if it’s a better product.

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Comment by RDS
2009-06-11 18:42:41

That umbrealla is indeed the Senz umbrella, designed at the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands, where I study.

I attended a lecture given by the inventors last year, it’s great to hear how a personal annoyance of umbrella’s bending and folding motivated them to design a better one.

I’ve used it and yes, it does work. A fine example of Dutch Design!

http://www.senzumbrellas.com/

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Comment by RDS
2009-06-11 18:45:29

Pcurve; about wind getting under it; that just doesn’t happen.

It doesn’t flip inside out because as soon as you tilt it, the longer (back)side of the umbrella catches enough wind to turn it back into upright position.

This combined with the short (front) always turning to face the wind makes it very stable; the wind keeps it upright.

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Comment by Mayuna
2009-06-11 21:01:35

Hooray for the Dutch umbrella! But why is it on television now? Wasn’t it a hit 2 years ago or so? Or is it to remind people of it? www

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Comment by Darien Shields
2009-06-15 03:17:37

In Scotland, we just made hoods on our jackets to take care of this particular problem.

(seriously, it ticks me off when there’s a little drizzle of rain here in Japan, and immediately everyone breaks out the umbrellas. Is this Oz? Are they witches? Will the finest mist of rain cause them to melt into a puddle of witch goo? I hope so because it’d be hilarious to watch)

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