F 1.1 Questions
1. Revisit the Project Proposal that you created and your design specifications. Consider the technical expertise and knowledge that is required to properly design your product. Has your team acquired the math, science, and engineering knowledge necessary to properly design your product? Have you contacted experts in order to gain the necessary knowledge or obtain assistance with the parts of the design that your team is not well equipped to perform? It is impossible to include an exhaustive list of math, science, and engineering principles that you should incorporate into the design of your product because each product design will require consideration of different concepts. The following list is intended only to get you thinking about concepts that you may need to investigate further.
- Loads. How will loads be transferred from the environment to your product, and how will loads be transferred within your product? Will the loads be static (unchanging) or dynamic (changing)? How can you calculate the loads? Will the components of your product be able to withstand the magnitude of these loads?
- Materials. Will your choice of materials withstand the test of time? Yes, we are choosing durable materials at a cheap price. Our materials and objects being used are reliable and will be able to last as long as the user wants them to. The overall failure of our machine will result in the mis-treatment of the customer. Will the density/weight of the materials adversely affect your design? No. As I previously stated, we are using durable materials. The weight of the materials will not play a role on the performance of our machine. Will mechanical properties of your materials provide sufficient strength, stiffness, and abrasion resistance? Yes, our machine casing/box will hopefully be made out of durable polymer plastic. This gives the device a durable and water resistant feel/look at a cheap price. The cost of the material may be cheap, but the material itself is actually very good. Will the material be able to withstand repetitive loading without premature failure?Yes, our load is very light considering the most weight upon the machine will be two wine glasses. Will the material operate well within the range of temperatures to which the product will be subjected? There are not really any different temperatures besides room temperature that will be in play. How will the material react to sunlight, temperature variations, chemicals to which it will be exposed? Our plastic housing will not be sensitive to chemicals nor sunlight. Our cleaners will be wrapped in micro fiber chenille pads which are machine washable and made to with stand dirt, dust, and water.
- Mechanical Engineering. Does your design require an input of heat or mechanical power? Are there moving parts in your design? Yes, our cleaners will be spinning at a fast speed. What simple machines are employed in the design? Will all the components of your product interact effectively? Yes, the cleaners will have to spin in synchronous and will be working based on the wiring and machines under each cleaner. Will the loads be efficiently transferred from part to part? The loads will be placed on the cleaners at the same and be removed at the same time. Do all the parts move at an ideal speed? The parts will have have to spin at the same speed in order to clean each glass at the same amount of time as the other one next to it. The speed will be considerably fast, but ultimately depends on what device we use for each spinner.
- Energy. Does your product require an input of energy? Yes, we will use batteries to power each cleaner. In what form is the energy supplied? How is it converted by your product to produce the desired output? We will be using batteries in order to provide a sufficient amount of energy to our machine in order to make the cleaners spin.
- Chemical/Bio Engineering. Does your design involve conversion of raw materials to another form during manufacture or use? No. What chemical or biological transformations are involved in the process(es)? None
- Electrical Engineering. Will your design involve electricity, electronics, control systems, telecommunications, or computers? Yes How will these systems be integrated into your design? These systems will be running the product. Our machine is going to have moving cleaners thus resulting in the use of possible motors/ electrical set-ups.
2. Have you researched laws, codes, and regulations that could potentially impact your design? Do you feel that your team has met its ethical responsibility for technical expertise related to the design of your product? If not, perform additional research at this time. Revise your product design as necessary. Laws that regulate materials could impact our design, but that is very easy to work around. Also laws about patents which we have been careful not to copy other designs. Our mentor has helped us with understanding the technical expertise required to complete our product.
3. Create a graphic to document your product’s anticipated lifecycle. Research the efforts necessary to take your product from raw materials to the end of its lifecycle (and potentially be reused or recycled into new products). Detail each phase of the cycle with information specific to your product. For example, in the Raw Material Extraction phase, indicate the raw materials that must be obtained in order to create your product. In the Material Processing phase, detail the processes necessary to convert the raw materials to usable substances in your product. In the Assembly and Packaging phase, detail the anticipated method of assembly (one-off, hand assembled, human assembly line in a large manufacturing facility, fully automated robotic assembly, etc.) and the anticipated type of packaging that will be used.
The majority of our product will be made of metal, most likely aluminum, extraction of raw aluminum from the ground would be necessary. The spinning wand is made of stainless steel.The metal would have to get processed, purified, and molded to our design. We would have to put together the product, adding on the battery compartment, microfiber rags, and the motors. Once our product is assembled by hand we will have to pack the product assembled, ship it to the consumers via some form of transportation. The consumer will use the product until it is time for disposal, the batteries and metal can be recycled and reused, and the rags can be thrown away.
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4. Consider the consequences of the development of your product at each phase in its lifecycle to people (designers, users, nonusers, employees of the manufacturers, distributors, sellers, etc.), the environment (including the use of nonrenewable natural resources; the potential release of toxins, waste, or pollution; the creation of visually unappealing facilities or noise pollution; the effect on animal and plant species, etc.), and society.species, etc.), and society. There would be no direct consequences to people other than the labor, but they would be getting paid for their labor. The only consequence would be the consequence on the enviornment, very minimaly from mining for metals and the disposal of the microfiber rags. Most of our product can be recycled whihc counteracts the negative effects on the enviornment. There should be no effect on society because if they buy our product, they will enjoy it and if they do not llike our product they do not have to buy it.
2.2 Lifecycle Flow Diagram
Summary
Our product has a pretty basic life cycle. We have not decided what metal we are going to use for our product, we are thinking aluminium, or an alloy of some sort, whatever the metal is it is going to need to be extracted from the ground and purified and molded to sheet metal. This is the only dangerous part of our product lifecylce. The product will be manufactured in a factory, then shipped off the costumers and packaged unassembeled. The product will be used by the consumer and should not cause harm to the consumer unless they use it incorrectly. The only hazardous material output from our actual design would be the acid from the batteries, which can irritate skin. Other than that our product can be recycled when disposed of properly.