EDSGN 100 DESIGN PROJECT #1 PROGRESS REPORT

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1 EDSGN 1 DESIGN PROJECT #1 PROGRESS REPORT TOOTHBRUSH DESIGN INTRODUCTION TO ENGINEERING DESIGN EDSGN 1 Sec. 25 Team #5 Siyang Liu Raymond Richlin Nam Mi Suh Kim sxl557@psu.edu rer5211@psu.edu nos531@psu.edu Submitted to: Prof. Christopher Smith Date: 1/2/213 Executive Summary Our team main objective and goal is based on creating a better electric toothbrush for kids and teenagers. After gathering and analyzing the customer needs, a new design was made by changing its outside appearance to make it look more attractive as well as manipulating some features to satisfy customer and the company s needs. Also, a change in the position of the switch and the power transmission inside the device was made. As the result of our design, the body part became smoother and smaller. The new switch is smaller and unified with the body better. Our new design will have less energy loss, which means the toothbrush will work longer and more efficiently compared with the original one and it has a bigger potential to earn higher profits and revenues than the old toothbrush model. 1

2 Toothbrush Design Project Table of contents Contents 1. Introduction Initial Problem Statement Customer Needs Assessment Hierarchy of Customer Needs Revised Problem Statement External Search Literature Review Benchmarking Design Target Internal Search Concept Generation Concept Selection Prototyping and Design Reviews Final Design Parts List of the Final Design Instructions for Assembly How it Works? Conclusion References Appendix A Survey sample Appendix B Face to Face Interview Sample Appendix C Pugh Chart Appendix D Final Design of Toothbrush: Assembly of Parts

3 1. Introduction Our team was assigned the task of creating a better design for an electric toothbrush in a limited amount of time. There are four members in our team, and each of us was assigned a certain part or section of the entire work. A screwdriver was used to open the original toothbrush and be able to take out its batteries. A balance, an ampere meter and a voltmeter were used to analyse the external and the inside electric structures. Also, photos were taken of each part we dissected. Next, sections from 1.1 to 2.2 analyse the customer needs. Patent research and benchmarking will be described in section 3. to 3.3. Then, the concept generation and concept will be presented in sections 4. to 4.3. Finally the final design related information and conclusion is presented on sections 5. to 5.3 and 6. respectively, at the end of the report, and at the very last of the report the appendix will be available. 1.1 Initial Problem Statement Design a toothbrush that is handheld, battery powered, and safe for ordinary daily use. It should be water resistant, as well as having the main function of cleaning the teeth thoroughly. It is designed for kids or teenagers between the ages 712 years old. 2. Customer Needs Assessment After issuing the problem statement, we gathered the actual customer needs to maximize the selling potential of our product and satisfy the customers. It is necessary and very important to set our design target so that we can enlarge our profits and revenues. By doing so, we sent out a total of 96 surveys and performed facetoface interviews with a random group of people, in this case college students. We selected these two methods because they are considered inexpensive, accomplished in a relatively short period of time and have a very small cost per participant, in terms of time invested in completing both the survey and the interview. Surveys are very useful in describing a general tendency for the characteristics of a large population. Also, the facetoface interviews can increase the amount of information obtained, meaning the response is not limited to just filling out some questions, but there exists a better interaction between the person interviewed and the person doing the interview; more specific questions can be asked and therefore the person interviewed is able to express better his or her thoughts than rather writing it on paper. In the short time and low budget conditions, we considered these the best ways to gather customer needs. Survey/ interview participants: male and female Penn State college students, age from 18 to 22, randomly selected, including students from a wide variety of cultures and ethnicities. For the first step to gather the customer needs each team member asked people in their surroundings what he or she thought might be the biggest concerns when choosing an electric toothbrush. After that process, all responses were recorded and summarized. A survey was also made and distributed to a group of random people at the University Park campus, State 3

4 College, Pennsylvania. The survey was anonymous and the participants were told to rank the options according to their opinions. The final result shows male participants had more interest on the performance and less on appearance than female participants when choosing an electric toothbrush. *Survey sample and the interview script with the questions can be found in the Appendix A and B respectively. Table 1 Customer needs survey feedback Importance Customer needs Softness Cost Apperance Noise Brush Size Weight Hierarchy of Customer Needs After the conclusions were made from the results of the surveys and the interviews, a hierarchy of customer needs was developed. It is crucial to take this step in the design process because it ranks the most important customer needs in an organized manner; these become specific areas in which the team needs to focus on to develop a product that will attract and satisfy the customers as well as generate and maximize revenues and profits for the company when it is finally launched in the market. Each category was ranked from the most important characteristic to the least important one, according to the results obtained from the participants surveys and interviews. As seen below, the final results shows customers consider the softness of the brush, the cost and the appearance the three most important characteristics when choosing an electric toothbrush. Table 2 Hierarchy of Customer Needs Category Rank Softness 1 Cost 2 Appearance 3 Noise level 4 Brush size 5 Weight 5 4

5 2.2 Revised Problem Statement We will consider a fixed tooth brush head and an easy assembly of body parts to ensure low costs of production and additionally a more organized appearance for the product. The appearance is a major feature for our design, as mentioned earlier, our target market will include young children and teenagers so in order to attract this target market the design must look attractive in terms of colours, any animation or cartoon figures used. Light but resistant plastic will be used for the different types of pieces, and the inside moor will be powered by AAA batteries. Due to the fact that the main users of this product are children, batteries and any kind of detachable parts, such as, the battery cap, must be secured to avoid any further injuries to the child or damages o the product itself. The design of the toothbrush will be handheld and water resistant and finally it will perform its cleaning task through vibrating or rotational type of brush. 3. External Search Performing an external search is an essential part for a product design and development process. Through this methodology, the team is able to explore the current market regarding the product that will be designed. Our team gathered information about the electric toothbrushes and our specific toothbrush through the internet and compare and contrast data about other teams toothbrushes. This helps to get a better idea of what types of products are already in the market, selling to the consumers and therefore guide us to be able to develop a better, more efficient and improved product. 3.1 Literature Review The object our team has selected is the Spinbrush Kids Marvel Collection: Captain America electric toothbrush. The price of this toothbrush ranges from $7. to $13. in several online shopping websites, such as, Amazon and Ebay. The Spinbrush Kid s Battery Powered toothbrush designed its products with smaller heads which are directed to its target market: the children population. It includes two replaceable AAA batteries and has great handle designs that would attract children and make brushing fun. Permission was awarded to the company from Marvel Characters B.V. to allow the usage of its characters as part of the external, physical design of the product. 3.2 Benchmarking In this section similar products were compared in order to analyse the different types of electric toothbrushes available in the current market. For this project we decided to perform the benchmarking with other teams from our Engineering Design 1 class. Two other teams 5

6 toothbrushes were compared; Team 1 and Team 3 s toothbrushes, Sonicare and Oral B Pulsar respectively were compared to our product, the Spinbrush Kids electric toothbrush. Table 3 Benchmarking of Three Types of Electric Toothbrushes: Sonicare, OralB and Spinbrush Kids Feature Team 1 Sonicare Team 3 OralB PULSAR Team 5 Spinbrush Kids Packaging Easily opened, all pieces well organized and displayed Pre etched cardboard in the back makes it easier to open Flashy front cover made of transparent plastic; multilingual instructions on the back side; Marvel s Captain America figure on the package Aesthetics Use of simple colors, such as, blue and white White marine and light blue base with a yellow, white and blue brush. Very colorful design including The Avengers: Captain America figure on the package and toothbrush Handle (Ergonomics) Sleek and manageable in size, easily held Firm rubber grip, comfortably adapted to the user s hand Awkwardly shaped due to the big button with Captain s America s shield form, handle too big for a child, made of plastic only Weight with batteries Very lightweight.8 g 83.8 g Safety No sharp ends that can hurt the user; batteries and other pieces secured safely inside Very safe to use, no sharp parts, no external moving parts. Children under 3 should use under an adult s supervision; do not submerge in water as the unit can be damaged Quality Average Overall good quality, rigid material Overall good quality, made of hard plastic material Ease and convenience of switch use Requires a certain amount of force to turn the power on/ off. Simple and easy to use Switch is too big and it makes it uncomfortable because it bumps with the hand during its usage, awkwardly holding of the toothbrush handle Average noise level (db) Type of batteries required db 7.9 db AA type batteries 1 AAA battery 2 replaceable AAA Additional/ Other features Flossing attachment Gum stimulator Sulcus tip One battery cycle, not replaceable. Massages gums 6

7 3.3 Design Target Through the external search many points of comparison were established between the three toothbrush brands: Sonicare, OralB and Spinbrush. The main difference can be determined regarding the target market; Team 1 and Team 3 s toothbrushes from Sonicare and OralB respectively are targeted to teenagers and adults, whereas Spinbrush s toothbrush, in this particular case, is directed to the children population. Features, like the gum stimulator and the flossing attachment might be convenient for an adult s toothbrush design, but for the younger children, a simple, easy to use, light and attractive toothbrush is much more convenient as children are not yet able to perform several cleaning tasks by themselves. Our team s design targets will be focused according to the customer needs hierarchy: the softness, the cost, the appearance as the three most important and therefore will have a greater weight when designing the toothbrush. The noise level, the brush size and the weight will also be considered for the design but no as much as the first three customer needs. 4. Internal Search Internal search is a kind of studying of our original design. We conduct this task by opening the product and measure every its property data. 4.1 Concept Generation For the concept generation process we decided to use the brainstorming method. All members came up with different ideas as well as sketches not for specific customer needs, but for whole toothbrush designs involving several customer needs at once; after the ideas came up we all gathered the information and details to come up with some designs that would lead us choose our final one. As seen below, in Table 5, the morphological chart shows all the different designs our team came up with. One concept that changed in every design was the movement or design of the brush head, the same from which the toothbrushes got their names or identities and therefore this would influence on how the motor inside the toothbrush would perform its task. There are 5 designs resulting from the brainstorming: A. Rotation, B. Up and down, C. Sliding, D. Vibration, and E. Top Spin. Some of the most unique ideas resulting from our concept generation were from the Up and down design and the Top spin design; in the first one the size of the brush head and brush as well would be relatively big and the brush head entirely would go up and down, as seen in the figure below. For the top spin design it is even more special ; it imitates the external form and appearance of a wand, having the brush head directed upwards, and the user would have to grab it in a way that the brush head would end up perpendicular to the teeth to be able to clean the teeth. Below is the morphological chart as well as the dissection of our original given toothbrush, the Spinbrush Kids Marvel s Captain America s toothbrush. 7

8 Table 4 Morphological chart Toothbrush design Functions A. Rotation Brush (only bristles) rotates through the use of two gears. It is easy to use as the child needs to hold the toothbrush like any other one and the bristles will do their work. Use of same plastic material as the original design. B. Up and down The entire brush head goes up and down. The brush head is big in size. A rubber piece helps the motion of up and down go smoothly. Use of same plastic material as the original design. C. Sliding Only the bristle part slides up and down. This is achieved by the motor inside the toothbrush. Use of same plastic material as the original design. D. Vibration Brush heads vibrates in same position. There is a motor just behind the bristle part that makes the bristle and the brush head vibrate in place. Use of same plastic material as the original design. 8

9 E. Top Spin Also called the wand toothbrush, it performs its task by holding the toothbrush as well as the brush head (bristles) perpendicular to the mouth and teeth. As shown in the figure at the left, the toothbrush is located facing upwards rather than to the right as a normal toothbrush would. Original Spinbrush Kids Design The brush head rotates 36 degrees every time it spins. Needs several small pieces to achieve this motion of 36 degrees. Use of same plastic material as the original design. 9

10 Labels: 1. Outer plastic cover of the toothbrush (with Captain America s figure on it) 2. Switch on/ off button (Captain America s shield design) 3. Brush head with bristles 4. Battery cap (made of plastic and screwdriver needed to take out the batteries) 5. 2 AAA replaceable batteries 6. Internal pieces of the toothbrush; this includes motor, gear, etc. 1

11 4.2 Concept Selection The next step towards our final design is the concept selection. Through the concept selection, concepts are chosen in order to come up with the final design of the product. Through the concept selection process the team chooses the most important concepts that satisfy both consumer needs and the company s needs and ranks them in order to come up with a final idea of how the new product s design and functions should be. For this design project the Pugh Chart method was used. A reference concept should be chosen in order to be able to compare it with the other designs. In this case we selected the original Spinbrush Kids design as our reference concept and instead of introducing specific concepts we decided to come up with several different toothbrush designs and compare and contrast them making reference to the selection criteria. The Pugh Chart method is a very useful for this step as the different concepts or designs can be ranked according to the selection criteria; the ranking is achieved by providing a relative score to the design for each criteria. The toothbrush s bristles softness will come in two different levels: soft and medium softness as children s teeth are still very sensitive and weak. * Pugh Chart is shown in Appendix C 4.3 Prototyping and Design Reviews The idea we prototyped was the sliding plate method of the inside workings of the toothbrush. We only prototyped one of our ideas because we were able to screen which ideas was not going work. The prototype is the same design that used for our final design of the toothbrush. 5. Final Design The final design is a toothbrush with a face separate from the brush head that oscillates up and down through the use of a battery powered motor and gears. 11

12 *See appendix D for link to detailed sketch of solid works assembly 12

13 5.1 Parts List of the Final Design Table 5List of parts of the final toothbrush design 5.2 Instructions for Assembly To operate the toothbrush, press the button on the front of the toothbrush once to turn it on. To turn the toothbrush off, press the button again. To remove the batteries, press in the sides of the battery compartment and pull out. To put the batteries back in, push the battery compartment back in until it clicks in place. 5.3 How it Works? The toothbrush works by using a dc motor connected directly to a small gear to turn one other gear. This gear moves a rod up and down that is connected to a plate on the head of the toothbrush. 13

14 6. Conclusion Our project was successful in that we designed a new mechanical toothbrush that meets the needs of the customer. It is simply designed, making it cost less to produce which in turn would allow it to be sold for a cheaper price. It is easy to handle and is designed to be ergonomic. The mechanical aspect of the brush is truly unique because it was made from the heads of our own team and does not exist in any other brush. 14

15 References Amazon.com Ebay.com MARVELHEROESAAABATTERYOPERATEDTOOTHBRUSH/ Spinbrush 15

16 Appendix A Survey sample Rank the qualities in the order of importance for an electric toothbrush. (1most important, 6least important) Category Softness Cost Appearance Noise level Brush size Weight Rank Appendix B Face to Face Interview Sample What do you think is important for you to choose a electric toothbrush? What do you think is important for a kid to choose a electric toothbrush? Do you care more about its performance or cost? What price do you think is appropriate for you? How often you change your electric toothbrush? Appendix C Pugh Chart Toothbrush designs Selection criteria Ease of use Durability Cost Ease of manufacture Sum + s Sum s Sum s Net Score A Rotation B Up and down C Sliding D Vibration E Top spin F Original Spinbrush Kids design 4 Rank Reference concept= *Relative Score: Better than (+) Same as () Worse than () 16

17 Appendix D Final Design of Toothbrush: Assembly of Parts ** (required Solidworks program to open file) 17