Claudio's new invention

010415PBClaudio. CREATIVE: Claudio Petronelli combines inventing with hairdressing. PICTURE / PAUL BROOKS

Claudio Petronelli is a hairdresser ... most of the time. He is also an inventor and has been putting applications through the Patent Office since the 1960s.
It was he who, in 1969, devised the double-lock childproof bottle top, refining the prototype with business partner Gavin Park. Although the patent has since lapsed, millions were made and the design remains popular today.
Since then Claudio has turned his attention to kitchen utensils, industrial valves and gardening tools.
Claudio indulges his creative side in his hairdressing salon but his father was a civil engineer so his practical side comes out in his inventions.
"I became a hairdresser by mistake," he says. "My father wanted me to do other things and I said 'no'. I happened to be helping a friend after school and that's how I became a hairdresser."
Originally from Rome, Claudio has been in New Zealand since 1963, arriving via London, and has been styling hair in Wanganui for more than 50 years.
Now, in a move far removed from combs and clippers, he has designed a hand tool that will become essential for tradesmen and handymen alike.
"There's nothing like it on the market," says Claudio - and he has done his research, looking through patents as far back as 1870. "You would think that someone would come up with something like it. All those engineers, what have they done all these years?"
The tool is a vast improvement on the builders' square - "This tool does lots and lots of things. There is nothing else on the market that can square up a round object."
He has called it the EzySquare, prefixed by his initials, CP, describing it as an "essential trades tool" and a "multi-use level, straight line tool". Claudio has designed the packaging and has taken out the necessary patents and Registered Design.
The EzySquare is not an adaptation of an existing tool. "Everything is brand new," says Claudio. The components have been made as far afield as Taiwan and as near as Palmerston North, with more than 1000 assembled in Wanganui. "The hardest bit to manufacture was the spring loaded alignment block. The tool is quality workmanship, each part in stainless steel or bronze except for the brightly coloured body which contains the level, that being in plastic. It has heft and it's easy to handle. Marked in imperial and metric measurements it has international appeal.
"The way it's designed, it will retain its accuracy for many years," says Claudio.
"Since it's a Wanganui invention, this will be the first place in the world where it gets sold." After that, the tool is going worldwide and he is already organising a manufacturer in the US. The tool came about when he and his brother-in-law were working on extensions to a property. When marking up the top and bottom plates for a new wall, Claudio realised he needed a tool, but to have it he would have to invent it. "I made one from cardboard to start, and from cardboard, moved on."
The CP EzySquare will be available from Mitre 10 Mega in Wanganui.