Background
- Spring 2023
- Individual Project
- Skills: CAD, technical illustration, product design, assembly
- Tools: SolidWorks
Overview
- In a computer aided design class, I designed a hand mixer from scratch in Solidworks.
- Deliverables: In this project I made
- Designed six parts individually and utilized gears and shafts from McMaster.
- Assembly from unique parts
- Technical illustrations
- An animation that showed how assembly would work
Research
Basic Reference
The design I chose was a hand mixer based of the Kitchenaid models.
Assembly Design Research
My strategy to accomplish the final design was to look at references and exploded view drawings.Since I did not have an actual hand mixer to take apart I also got creative and watched youtube videos of people taking apart hand mixers.
Final Design
Individual Part Illustration
Assembly Illustration
Animation
Things I learned
Biggest Challenge: Worm Gear
Initially, I struggled trying to make my own worm gear which proved to be an unnecessary task. After some advice from my professor, I realized finding the parts on McMaster would not only be easier but more realistic to how this product would actually be designed. If this hand mixer were to actually be produced I would use gears that were industry standard. This lesson helped my design be better because my dimensions were based on standard pieces not arbitrary numbers.
Using My Resources
Another challenge I faced was not having a physical hand mixer to take apart and look at the pieces. Instead, I had to rely on resources from the internet like youtube videos and exploded views of hand mixers. This challenge taught me to be creative when finding sources.