Bottle Opener 4/4

A New Direction: The Final Design

After multiple failures with the jellyfish design, we decided to move in a different direction towards what became our final design.

In the end we chose a model in which force would be applied vertically rather than horizontally.  In this model the top edge of the opener would create a fulcrum point in the center of the bottle cap that would aid the bottom edge in prying the cap up. In this case, the bottle opener would be moved in an upward motion. 

When it came time to draw this model in Solid Works, a couple of design elements changed.  The top part of the opening mechanism became more rounded so that it would have more contact with the top of the bottle opener. The aesthetic appearance also changed. What started of as an attempt to create an ergonomic design for the handle took a whimsical turn resulting in the design seen below.

A bee! For all your “bee-verage” needs

With this our design was ready to print out. Not only did it work on the first try it was also much easier to use than our other design!

Presentations

With our final Design working and ready to go came the moment of truth. As the whole class looked on, we demonstrated our product. While it took a few tries, eventually the cap came off in a bubbling mess of soda and relief. I was very happy that the bottle opener worked in the end.

Analysis of Function

An explanation of the physics of our various models can be found throughout the process description.

For our final model  the body of the “bee” works as a lever to pry the cap off the bottle. When the “mouth” is placed around the cap it aids in removing it in two ways.

The top rounded part of the mouth applies force to the center of the cap creating a fulcrum point for witch it can bend. We felt that the center is the ideal place for this pint to be because it is the part of the cap least supported by the bottle. Meanwhile, the bottom edge of the mouth acts to push the edges of the bottle cap up and off of the bottle.

In the end, the torque we created on the bee from 1) exerting force ourselves (controllable) and 2) its distance away from the pivot point (fixed), was enough so that the fulcrum would move slowly and allow the bee's bottom mouth to pull the cap's ridges out.

The physics of our bottle opener also takes into account the cantilever equation (deflection = (FL^3)/(3EI) where F=force, L=length, E=Young's modulus, and I=area moment of inertia)  In the case of our project we were limited to focusing on altering beam length and shape to create a strong product. In this case I think that making the small round design of the opener served it well.

Reflection

Well, that's it for this project. Over the last couple classes I was able to learn a lot about using SolidWorks and the laser cutter.  There were a lot of trials and errors associated with making the bottle opener, but in the end I am satisfied with our design. If I were to continue to work on this project, however,  there are aspects of the bottle opener that can still be improved  such as the thickness of the bottom of the bee's bottom mouth.

Thanks for following our progress, and tune in for the next project!

Bottle Opener 3/4

From SolidWorks to Delrin

After the informative and experience filled process of modeling our bottle opener on SolidWorks, we were finally ready to print a 2-D DXF copy on the laser cutter. For this task we selected a 1/8'' thick Delrin sheet and began the process of learning how to use the laser cutter. Or at least that’s what we thought would happen…

When it got down to actually uploading our design to the printing software, Corel could not read our file completely. We thought the lack of some lines in our design was an error in the saving process, but after multiple trials going to and from computers, this did not seem to be the case. Eager to see if the design actually functioned, however, we decided to just print out our model in its most basic state and worry about its aesthetic elements later.

With our design all printed came the moment of truth. Would it work? Did we have to choose another design?  Turns out......

It worked!

 While not the completed design, our bottle opener at least managed to do what it was supposed to.  In testing this model out we were also able to see new ways to improve the design! For one, we knew that the next model we would print would have to be cut from thicker material. This trial model was way too bendy, and we couldn’t help but worry that it would snap somewhere down the line. We also found that the head was a bit too large. In one of our tests, the top edge of the opener slipped over the neck of the bottle and got stuck there. With these things in mind, we went back to solid works to make some changes.

Over the course of the week we worked a lot with Larry, our machinist, sorting out the printing trouble we had on the first day. Thanks to his help we were able to print out our first full model, tentacles and all!

Our work was not done here though. It turns out that we still had a lot of things to lean about what not to do when using the laser cutter.

Trial 1: Bottle Opener/knife

 Starting from this point on, Vicki and I decided to use a 3/16" sheet of Delrin. At first I was confused about where this pointy protrusion had come from, but it turns out Vicki had added it to see if it could aid in the bottle opener’s function.  She thought it could be used to pry open the bottle cap in some way.

The main reason we moved on from this trial, however was because our dimensions were slightly off. Despite making an effort to check the dimensions and measure some of the parameters by hand, we learned that we needed to use SolidWork’s "Measure" function for the design to truly work out .

 Trial 2/3: 

When we printed out this final version of the jellyfish design, our dimensions were finally correct. It was the perfect size for the hand, and it made contact with the bottle cap in all the places it was supposed to. Only… it just would not open the bottle.

We tried filing the straight edge of the opener to make it fit under the cap more easily, but this did not work. Finally, we came to the conclusion that the curve of the head was too narrow for applying force the way we wanted it to. In this case, the action of the bottle opener relied on having a force applied tangent to force of the straight edge lever, and this just wasn’t occurring.

Rather than continue with this design, we decided it was time to move on.

Bottle Opener 2/4

Choosing a Design

Once we were satisfied that we had plenty of designs to choose from, Vicki and I got down to making styrofoam models of our potential bottle openers. While some fell flat, we had a couple that showed promise. In the end, we chose a simple, yet effective design that I feel will do the job. 

Introducing: The jellyfish bottle opener!

While the model's aesthetic designs were a bit rough, it's functional element, the head of the jellyfish, appears to be strong. This bottle opener is designed so that circular side's of the jellyfish's head will rest against the top sides of the bottle applying force, while the flat edge will come from underneath to pry the cap open. We also added a smaller circle at the base of the opener so that it could double as a keychain. 

Confident that our design would work, we move on to drawing our figure in SolidWorks. While at first it was a bit tricky to learn how to use the software, we were able to come up with the design seen above. 



Stay tuned for the next step: Laser Cutting!