This project was done for my Design for manufacturing class in which we had to take apart an existing Toro leaf blower and design a new casing around the original components while keeping in mind manufacturing processes such as draft angle and tooling pull.
The design steps are similar to that of the other projects. I would start with some preliminary hand sketches of what the new casing could look like, from which we would narrow down to a few main concepts.
The concepts that were chose would be redrawn and given more detail with thought about the orientation of parts and function. From here we would choose four main concepts to begin the next process.
These four main concepts would be further refined and given color exploration in order to choose a final design.
A rough foam model of the final design was made in order to explore surfacing and ergonomic issues. It was brought into the computer to begin the designing for manufacturing. The original components that would be reused were reverse engineered and a new casing was built up around them that maintained a minimum of one half of a degree of draft angle and proper rib support was applied were needed. The final design encompassed unusual style and unique appearance from that of the original design.
gLike
Leaf Blower
Design for Manufacturing