Blog Entry 7
Week 14: Design Specifications and Prototyping
This weeks blog is about design specifications and prototyping for our chemical device that we ideated in CA1.
What is design specifications? It is a set of documented requirements that materials, design, product and service have to satisfy. For our product, the design has to be user friendly such as elderly people.
Design specification is important as:
- Provides design team with the information they need to build out new features or functionality of a product
- Allows product designers to know what they are building and what should the final build achieve
Examples of design specifications are:
- Material specification - Physical (Dimension, weight, voltage required etc)
- Functional/Performance specification
- Standard specification
- Test standard
For part five of our CA2, we have create a design specification table for our group's chemical product based on what we learn.
Here is what we did:
Now for prototyping. Prototyping is an essential part of product design that comes after ideation, where the team have created and selected ideas that can solve user' needs. It is a simple experimental model of the proposed product to see if it satisfy users through their feedback.
Prototype allows designers to make improvements, adapt to changes earlier, gather feedback about design and get insights on how users use the product. It can also prevent high failure cost and is a cheap way to visualize the product.
Prototype design
For our prototype, we decided to split it into 3 parts and connect them together using the slot and tab joinery to create our chemical product which is called the HeatTwist
Starting with the left and right part of the model, we decided not to use any tape or glue and only use the cardboard joineries we learn in practical 2 as in practical 4 we only use hot glue to attach different parts of the cardboard together.
Left and right part:
1. We drew out how the model is going to look like in 2D and cut out the curves to be use as a stencil.
2. Draw out how the left and right part of our model will look like when flatten
3. Cut out the drawn parts and small slits for the cardboard to bend
4. Draw and cut out strips (22cm by 2cm) to use as 'filling' for the parts to make it sturdy
5. Tear out some cardboard paper and stack the strips to the shape of the design
6. Join the cardboard paper and the cutout of the handle with toothpick and cutting the excess
7. Repeat for the right side
Middle part:
1. Draw and cut out the middle parts
2. Attach the top and bottom cut out with toothpick and cut slits for a slot
3. Attach the left and right part with a tab
4. Roll a piece of cardboard paper into a shape of a spring and put inside the middle part
The spring is a mechanism that brings the left and right parts of the gripper back to their original position after using the device to open a jar.
5. Join the cardboard paper and middle part with toothpick and cut the excess
Finished product:
Hero shot with the product:
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Product in operation:
By placing a tight jar in the correct dimensions of the HeatTwist, grip the handles together and wait for a few second for the lid of the jar to heat up and open the lid with ease. The spring in the middle part will bring the grippers back to their original position after use.
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