As part of the impact residency program at Pier 9, my goal is to mass produce products that have a measurable impact on the world.
My company, Smart Wheels
We will then provide these products to wheelchair users around the world through traditional distribution channels.
People who use wheelchairs often use a product called transfer boards to help them get in and out of wheelchairs.
Transfer boards are usually simple equipment made of wood for about $50
A good $80.
Unfortunately, transfer boards are generally not covered by insurance, and $50 may be a huge investment for people with fixed income.
Therefore, we decided to make a lighter weight and lower cost product by using a
plastic injection molding process.
We expect to be able to make a $20 injection-molded transfer board that will exceed the affordability barrier for users around the world.
In this structure, I will show you the process from concept to product.
Source of Gif: we have this concept, the first step is to go out and ask people what they like about the design of the current transmission board.
We want to talk to wheelchair users, therapists and families who use wheelchairs.
After as many interviews as possible, we can identify areas where we can really make a difference.
While exquisite wooden transfer boards often look better for most users, we can succeed in making a plastic transfer board that is lighter, easier to hold and significantly less costly.
After the interview, it\'s time to create a conceptual model for people to provide feedback.
After many discussions, taking into account manufacturing issues, user aesthetic preferences and survey data, we have identified a single design concept.
The selected design has rounded corners, handles on corners and large and thick ribs in order to stand up and face the 250-pound person sitting in the middle.
It should be very smooth on the top, the actual sliding surface.
There is also a slight antipathy to the standard medical White aesthetics of traditional plastic transfer boards.
Therefore, we decided to use gray or blue color for the finished product.
Fortunately, in the later stages of the manufacturing process, the color of the injection parts is easily changed.
High Density Polyethylene is planned for this product (HDPE)
Strength and cost.
In order to understand the design before investing a lot of time and money in making the prototype, we need to do two simulations: Finite element analysis of the 250-pound person sitting on it: using the analytics tool built into Autodesk Fusion Jingdong, I ran a simulation to see how the product will deform under weight.
Based on these results, I had to go back and revise it several times before I was sure the design was strong enough.
To simulate this and make sure we have an injection molding design, I ran the part model through Autodesk Moldflow Advisor.
You can see the way plastic is filled from the center of the part.
Some interesting things to learn at this step: go to the 3D printer!
We are using a printer from Fortus Ltd. we have to print it out in two parts and stick it together.
This process allows us to see the real version of the product before entering the tool steps.
Unfortunately, this prototype is not enough for real stress testing, but it is large enough to have a good feel for the look of the product.
Designing injection molds is usually a very professional task outsourced to another company.
But since we were a bit crazy here and we thought it was fun to do things ourselves, we decided to design it and in-house.
We use Autodesk Inventor for mold design.
DME, a Michigan mold supply company, can stock parts.
The real mold will be made of aluminum and steel, but the model is color coded to see all the different parts.
After the mold is completed, the weight will reach 1,500, which is equivalent to the size of a small coffee table.
For this step, you need a vertical milling machine with high precision.
Fortunately, Pier 9 has an Haas VF2, which is perfect for maintaining the strict tolerances required for injection molding.
The gap between polyethylene less than 0 flashes.
002 inch wide, Haas vertical milling machine can guarantee /-0.
0005 inch when you use it correctly.
The mold consists of 11 plates, each taking any time from 2 to 24 hours to the machine.
After the mold is finished, we can finally make the mold for the part.
Of course, the mold is only half done now, so we can\'t make the complete parts yet, but we will do it in January.
We work with a factory in central Illinois called PDI, which has 10 different molding machines that make parts for all different companies.
My company IntelliWheels will take over the distribution challenge.
IntelliWheels has a good distribution network in 20 countries around the world.
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