Praxis I Design Teardown
The object of our tear down as seen on Amazon.
Overview: During the first two weeks of Engineering, I took part in my first engineering design exercise: “reverse engineer” a manufactured device by taking it apart, to determine the factors the designers and manufacturers took into consideration while designing it. Our specific product to analyze was the Black & Decker® Stainless Steel Coffee Bean Mill. During this activity, we practiced engineering team work – namely, each member had a specific task to accomplish during the tear down. I was responsible for documenting the process we took to reach our final conclusions.
The Team: Toluwanimi Odemuyiwa, Varun Sharma, Adam Voogel, Justin Zhang
Date: September 2013
Process in Action : Since this was a reverse engineering exercise, we used the engineering design process in reverse to determine what the original problem definition, purpose, and need for which the design was created. Starting with the finished “published” product, we analyzed key design features such as material, aesthetics and manufacturing to determine what criteria the engineers designed for. In preparation for an in-class report on our conclusions, I did further research on the device to better understand its features, such as watching a video on how to clean the device (to determine design for maintainability and ease of use), a page on the product specifications, a page on the properties of stainless steel (to determine design for cost, durability), and a comparison of the product with other Black and Decker products(to determine the specific criteria for this design relative to other comparable designs).
Results: In the end, we discovered that the engineers designed for safety, efficiency, and low cost to the customer. We also identified some improvements to the design to better meet these criteria.
The following is a link to the notes I took during the tear down and in preparation for the in-class report: Device Tear Down
The Team: Toluwanimi Odemuyiwa, Varun Sharma, Adam Voogel, Justin Zhang
Date: September 2013
Process in Action : Since this was a reverse engineering exercise, we used the engineering design process in reverse to determine what the original problem definition, purpose, and need for which the design was created. Starting with the finished “published” product, we analyzed key design features such as material, aesthetics and manufacturing to determine what criteria the engineers designed for. In preparation for an in-class report on our conclusions, I did further research on the device to better understand its features, such as watching a video on how to clean the device (to determine design for maintainability and ease of use), a page on the product specifications, a page on the properties of stainless steel (to determine design for cost, durability), and a comparison of the product with other Black and Decker products(to determine the specific criteria for this design relative to other comparable designs).
Results: In the end, we discovered that the engineers designed for safety, efficiency, and low cost to the customer. We also identified some improvements to the design to better meet these criteria.
The following is a link to the notes I took during the tear down and in preparation for the in-class report: Device Tear Down
