ENGINEERING EMPATHY EDUCATION
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Finishing the Design Process

Brainstorming Prototype #4

After the most recent visit and testing the toy with children, the team faced a huge design change at an advanced stage of the project. They needed to reduce the weight by half, add more maze parts, test new mechanical parts, and manufacture all of the toy in a span of several weeks.
Left: A first look at how the new handles might be added to the toy. They could be curved or straight but their attachments would be the difficult part. No standard flanges would fit the pipe we want and so making the flanges in house would be the only option. The straight pipe could be attached using something that would come from the interlocking component. Either option would be possible but would both take time to make in house.
Center: The curved pipe would be easiest to make or buy. A 1 inch diameter pipe that is already curved would be simple to find as a stock part. This would mean the flanges would be made in house.
Right: Another look at how the curved pipe might be incorporated into the toy. The pipes would enable the ball to still travel to each cube while also adding ergonomic handles and reducing the overall weight. The flanges are not shown but the team decided to machine them out of aluminum stock in house.

Manufacturing Prototype #4

Polycarbonate Walls
  • purchased from Colorado Plastics
  • two central holes milled in house

Wall Mazes
  • 3-axis CNC milled in house using Delrin stock

Aluminum Interlocking Component
  • bought as stock 80/20 extruded Aluminum
  • milled to size and tapped in house

Aluminum Flanges
  • purchased stock 2" diameter Aluminum rods
  • turned on lathe in house to correct shape
  • milled and tapped holes in house
Polycarbonate Lids
  • CNC milled in house out of 1/8" polycarbonate stock

Middle Mazes
  • 3D printed using Formlabs printer
  • smoothed with sand paper by hand
  • dyed using Rit fabric dye

Spiral Mazes
  • 3D printed using Formlabs printer
  • smoothed with sand paper and Dremel by hand

Aluminum Pipe
  • bent 1" diameter purchased in stock size
  • milled to size and shined in house

Space and skatepark themed backgrounds to add color to the mazes and an additional education component for children. These images were edited in Photoshop, printed and laminated, and laser cut to size in house.
These middle mazes were dyed to be purple and blue to add more color to the overall toy.

Mechanical Testing: Round 2

Since the toy design was changed so dramatically, new mechanical testing was necessary to ensure the toy was safe and still maintained structural integrity. This round of mechanical testing was conducted on the handles. The team wanted to be sure the handles could not be forced into breaking off the toy. This test was conducted by a compression test on the Instron once again.
The test setup included two fully lathed and milled flanges, one curved pipe, fasteners, two 1/4" polycarbonate bent walls, one interlocking 80/20 aluminum extrusion, and two 80/20 t-slots to hold the whole assemnbly together.
Left: Here is the testing assembly in the Instron ready for compression.
Middle: Initial position of the testing material. Notice the lack of deformation in the polycarbonate wall.
Right: Final position of the testing material. The material did not fail from the compression. The setup assembly ended up slipping out of the Instron due to the force and large amount of deformation. However, the material does show dramatic bending in the polycarbonate walls at 550 lbs. 
Picture
The compression test on the handle was successful. The setup did not experience any material failure during the test which was excellent. The setup slipped out of position at 550 lbs. and then caught itself briefly, before slipping out of position completely and off the machine at 500 lbs. Thus, the team is confident a child will not be able to remove the handles by any form of brute force.

Final Version of Toy

The team finally finished all manufacturing and proceeded to assembly the whole toy.
Above are sneak peeks of the final version of the toy. More thorough images and CAD renderings can be found on the "Final Product" page. 

With the final version of the toy completed...

...one last round of testing with children was needed...

...this can also be found on the "Final Product" page.

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  • Team #1
    • Quotes!
    • About Us
    • Design Journal
    • Key Partners 2017
    • Outreach
    • Design
    • Art
    • Project Impact
    • Build Your Own >
      • CAD Design Iterations
      • Final CAD Designs
    • Children's Hospital Colorado
  • Team #2
    • Requirements and Benchmarking
    • Beginning the Design Process
    • Continuing the Design Process
    • Finishing the Design Process
    • Final Product
    • Formal Reports
    • Formal Presentations
    • Suggestions for the Future
    • Drawing Packages
    • Expo Poster
    • 3D Printing Files
    • Our Partners
    • Gallery