MOVE THE COMPONENT
OBJECTIVE
The design objective is to deliver the components over the distance most efficiently so that M can be as big as possible.
BACKGROUND
A company in the LA area has a particular application where they need to automate the process of moving components from a platform into a package for shipment.
DESIGN
Product Planning Phase
Customer needs are categorized as seen in Figure 2 to list the specific necessities based on market research and empathy map of the current users. Engineering requirements answer directly to the customer needs and the specific requirements in order to make the customer need a reality in the final solution.
Functional Design Phase
From the engineering requirements, the solution is broken down into functions and structures in order to accomplish the task of moving the component. The flow starts with the incoming component and goes through the moving mechanism, detection, delivery, and finally the height adjustment.
Conceptual Design Phase
Variant 1
Variant 2
Variant 3
Variant 4
Understanding the flow and interaction of each function and structure, the conceptual design stage began. 4 concepts were generated using the morphology chart as seen in the figures above. Using the Pugh Decision matrix in Table 1, the four variants are compared with an existing product. Variant four was chosen based on the given criteria taken from the engineering requirements and customer needs. This is to compare and rate quantitativily their respective performance to the current product.
Detailed Design Phase
Variant 4 was further evaluated to match the previous functions and subsystems from the Function Structure Diagram. In addition, we needed to make sure the detailed design matches the initial determining customer needs and engineering requirements in order to achieve the objective: move the component. The figure above is the final rough sketch with important dimensions and labels of subsystems and interfaces to make this product a reality. The sketch was converted into a 3D CAD model in Solidworks with technical drawings to go with the manufactured essential components.
RESULTS
This semester-long project went through the entire design product development cycle from user research to finalizing a detailed design. Using different design methodologies, the final product was able to be conceptualized based on customer needs to accomplish the task of moving the component. The detailed process can be seen in the final report. The final design was designed for manufacturing and assembly, so it is ready for the beginning of physical prototyping and manufacturing.