ENME 204 Animated Toy Project
Design specifications
C-BOT will be marketing a toy imitating a Mardi-Gras style parade float. It is called “Marty the Alligator” and is approximately 10 in3. The float part is made from wood. The alligator body itself is made from plastic and produced with a 3D printer. The other parts include the axles, wheels, followers, and cams.
Target Market
C-BOT plans to market Marty the Alligator to the parents of young children; mainly parents who will be touring New Orleans during the Mardi Gras festival. C-BOT plans to make Marty an impulse purchase and will also have it on sale at different locations such as gift shops that deal with the Mardi Gras theme. The parents’ children will be the users, but it will be appealing to both the parents and children.
Description of Design
Marty will be a human-powered toy which will have two moving components activated by the pushing of the toy. The alligator part will be colorful and the float part will be decorated with various accessories. Marty will also have bells inside the float which will add sound and make it more appealing to the buyer and user of the toy.
Safety Considerations
Because the toy will be used by used by young children, many considerations for safety were taken. The float and alligator parts will be rigid so there are no small parts that children could swallow. The bells will be inside the float part so they will be out of reach for the children. The wheels and the axles will also be out of reach from the children.Marty will not have any sharp edges and will be easy for children to grip when using the toy.
Materials/cost
The parts which are 3D printed will be the most costly. The 3D printer costs were estimated to be $60. The wood float part, wheels, axles, and accessories come out to approximately $20. The grand total using these resources and the 3D printer will be about $80. With the use of mass production, the toy will be much cheaper to construct. C-BOT decided to price the toy around $4 because it will be an impulse buy and most parents will choose to avoid purchasing the toy if it is more expensive.
FEM analysis
The base of our toy is a crucial component. It must support the materials of the toy and the force applied when a child is playing with the toy. An FEA analysis was conducted in ProE with two constraints and an applied force. The constraints were applied to the bottom of the base, with no deformation in either direction. The force is applied to the top, where the alligator sets and a child’s hand would be pushing down when playing. An estimated 40 pound force was used in the analysis. 40 lbs was chosen because we thought a child would have considerable difficulty producing force in excess of that magnitude.
Results from FEA:
Max Von Mises Stress = 3.827e03 psi
Material Yield Strength = 5.300e03 psi
From the analysis we can conclude that the base part will not break under a 40 lb force. The material yield stress is less than the von Mises leaving the part with a factory of safety equal to 1.4.