Assessment #2 - Design Development (drill)Studio 6

Bronte Stolz

Introduction

Power tools have lived within the shed since their conception. The only problem with this is that many people now live in different types of hous-ing, smaller, apartment based settings where sheds simply don’t exist. As such, the boundary between the workshop and living area for these dwell-ings has blurred. This project sets out to design a contemporary drill, with highly resolved physical and cognitive ergonomics, that compliments the kitchen (not the workshop).

This report, documents the development of such a design, researching the current field of drills, their environment of use to inform the actual design.

From this research, personas and scenarios are developed to aid, in conjuc-tion with the environmental research, a brand language suitable for such a product. As well as highlight aspects of the design that will need attention.

Once a concept has been chosen, it is refined through iterations of user testing, analysis and re-evaluation.

Target Market

This set of photo’s shows various choices of de-cor within small scale living environments. With the image to the left, it can be seen that the iron has a theme colour to it.

The image to the left encompasses the influ-ence for our brand language.

Most of the appli-ances/products within this kitchen are quite contemporary, brushed aluminium pieces.

There is a neutral theme colour of torquise through the kitchen.

(the housing type is a duplex unit).

Neighbouring Products

In order for the product to be successful, it must fit in with the aesthetic of other household appli-ances (in this case, the kitchen).

Brand Identity

Implicit Values

Thought for design (in that users don’t have to think about what they are doing all the time) - just a simple product where the thinking has already been done for the user.

Comfortable ergonomics

Contemporary aesthetic (elegant)

Explicit Values

-Simple/minimalistic layout

-Rubberise soft touch texture

-Turquoise color surface/theme

-Brushed metal components

-iconic representations (for information)

-Neat and smart packaging

theme colour (turquoise)

Rubber soft textured finish

brushed metal

Note: Bronte means thunder, and Torgen is dan-ish for thunder (which fits in with power tools and contemporary design). I feel at least.

Personas:

Name: Somaya

Gender: Female

Age: 24

Annual Income: $32k

Type of Housing: 2 story Duplex/unit (2 bedroom), 1 carport

Partner: no

Skill set (1 = novice, 5 = seasoned handyman/woman): 3

Years lived in apartment: ½ year

Disability: N/A

Time spent in apartment/week: 65 hrs

Interests: Shopping/fashion, partying, gourmet cooking, pop culture/music.

House plans: I need to buy a bedside table, install some s and make a veggie patch.

Name: Cassandra

Gender: Female

Age: 41

ice)

Annual Income: $80K

Type of housing: Studio Apartment, 2 bedroom, CBD

Re

Skill Set (1 = novice, 5 = seasoned handyman/woman): 4

nths

Disability: Tennis Elbow (R.S.I)

Time Spent in Dwelling/week: 100 hrs

Interests: Philosophical literature, human behaviour, classical music and Red wine

House Plans: Hang up sketches of mine; I guess I will need some kind of power tools to do it.

behind the human will.

-plans to hang an art frame on her bedroom brick wall

-measures a suitable height for her frame with an extension ruler

-Draws a dot on the wall

-Using a 12 volt drilled to make holes on wall

-Her arms are uncomfortable due to the thicker handle which also hurt her wrist

-drill gets jammed in the wall, get harder to drill deeper

-has to reverse the drill and go at it again

-

Gender: Male

Age: 32

Annual Income: $64K

Type of Housing: 3 bedroom, town house, Norwood (street parking)

daughter.

Skill Set (1 = novice, 5 = seasoned handyman/woman): 2.5

Time spent in apartment/week: 80 hrs

Interests: s cycling, volley ball,

House Plans:

Life Goals: Earn more money and work less hours. Maybe buy a small boat to quell my status anxiety.

-ready to move out to a bigger place with his misses

-dismantling furniture for transport

-taking out screws from walls

-has issues using a drill, cumbersome

-hard to control torque and speed

-breaking screw heads and being frustrated

- -

-

Tech Pack - Basis

The Crimps tech pack is based off of the Ikea Fixa drill’s

which looks like this

Power 7.2 v 7.2 v 10.8 v 7 .2 v 1 0.8 v

capacity (Ampere )

N/A N/A N/A 1.5Amp 1 .3Amp

Torque (Nm) N/A 6.78 Nm 10~25 Nm N/A 10~16Nm

Tourque

N/A N/a 10+1 1 5+1 0.2-2.4 Nm

Weight (Kg) 1 .1 Kg 2.2 Kg 0 .95Kg 1.3Kg 0.9Kg

Rpm 0-720 0-650 0 -410 0 -400 0 .-1200

Switch Speed

2 1 1 1 2

1 .5 hours N /A 3 hours 3 -8 hours 2 0min

Benchmarking prod-ucts.

Explicit User Needs Table:

No. Need Importance 1 5 2 Fast re- 4 3 Low weight product 5 4 All A drill that can be

understood by most types of people (not just tradespeople).

5

5 motor A motor powerful enough to drill into gyprock, wooden studs and 6mm steel but can also handle

screwing

5

6 motor Something that is quiet enough for use within a duplex/shared wall housing

4

7 Easy to recharge 4 8 chuck

be used for both screwing and drilling

4

9 All (motor) Low weight product 5 10 All (Trigger) Low weight product 5

11 Trigger Adjustable speed; so

as to allow for both screwing and drilling

5

12 Trigger Understandable mapping in terms of

4

13 Shell/housing Low weight product 5 14 Shell/housing An ergonomic/ easy

to grip product 4

15 Shell/housing Something that

apartment

4

16 Package Low cost item 5 17 Packaging Minimal impact on

room decor 3

18 Chuck Ability to hold fastener in place before screwing

3

19 All Physically and

ergonomic

5

Existing Market (features)

removable cartridge battery

pressure trigger

overmould handle

speed control

drill direction switch

torque ring settings

spirit level

Drill User Study (how do different people grip cordless drills)

Note: the following test was undertaken using a 14.4V volt Bosch drill. The following images depict the differ-ent ways in which users grasped the drill.

Conclusion: users tend to use 2 hands to hold the drill ,even though many drill do not afford this style of use.

Design Developmentconcept 1

concept 2

Concept 1 was chosen as the starting point for the drill design. A soft model was made to represent the design physically.

Pistol grip form with in built stand.

In order to develop this design, it was believed necessary to create an addi-tional function for the handle.

USB charger idea. Although, after research, this was ruled out as a possibility as the standard charging time of a 3.7V Li-ion battery 1600mAh (approximately half of the desired battery capacity) is roughly 4 hours on USB 2.

Which then became this, a simple two part drill.

Without the additional section, it seemed to lack a sense of refinement.

The top part of the above illustration, explores the idea of using the bottom section to act as a limit-ing barreir for drilling depths i.e. by setting it 20mm in front of the drill bit, the drill hole could only be 20mm deep.

This sketch marked the turning point in my design. The bottom section depicts experimentation with the form. i.e basing it around the shape of the battery back (which was at this point still 10.8V - meaning 3 cells).

And with such a battery pack, a triangular form lent itself to the handle.

10.8V - drill concept.

10.8V Drill Soft model.

After testing 5 users (3 female and 2 male) - all under 30. The general consensus was that the drills handle was to wide and thus awkward to hold.

Believing that a 10.8V battery powered drill would create too large a diameter, I switched a to a 7.2V system. In doing so, the form altered with it. Instead of having 3 equal sized circles defining the form it became two small and one large (as seen below).

The image to the left shows the first iteration of this form.

The connection between the handle and body seemed too stunted on the last it-eration. Consequently the adjacent body was born.

After a few informal user trials, it was considered more comfortable than the last attempt but still to wide.

Progression of the forms profile - the far right shows the conclusion.

Basis for Final Form

Initially, the drill’s upper body (horizontal) was relatively long (so as to ensure that a second hand could by used on this part to steady the drill).

After weighting it, it began to seem less comfortable with the weight of the engine close to the chuck end.

Form refinement

More suitable, compact form, less strain in holding with a shorter shaft.

Note: the minimum height the handle grip section can be is 103 mm (in-cluding wall thickness) to house the battery back, trigger, and trigger travel components.

Trigger Refinement

Once the main shell’s form reached a semi workable state, I set about trying to fit a usable trigger to it (iso-lating the design of each part -but still considering their place within the entire product).

Initial experimentation with dif-ferent trigger types.

Angled trigger concept. Note: the trigger is split into 2 separate sections because the top section controls the direction of the drill (i.e. clockwise vs anti-clock-wise)

basis for final trigger

Removing sections of the prior concept to try and fit in the direction switch

trying to increase the radii on the trigger and directin component (so as to differ-entiate them).

After trying to get 2 female users, to change the direc-tion unsuccessfully on a foam model, the integrated trigger system was deamed un-usable and therefore scrapped.

Two part trigger. The front section, which also acts as a guide, can be pushed forwards to change from reverse, to lock and then forwards.

Decals showing which setting is in use - these arrows were picked from a user survey.

forwards locked reverse

Showing the movements of the integrated direction trigger.

More User Testing:

Initially, users found it somewhat confusing the change the direction (possibly due to the fact that they had never quite interacted wtih such a mechanism on a drill) - although, once they spotted the direction icon slot, they picked it up. And once they new it, after 5 minutes i asked them to change it again and they knew exactly what to do. Note: with the old style direction swtiches - this was not the case. Each time the user put the drill down and then picked it up again, they were sure which way the drill was spinning until they pressed the trigger. (This was confirmed using the CAD assembly model in conjunction with the foam model)

trigger

One thing that was still considered uncomfortable about the new trig-ger design was the height of it. Users complained, that the trigger was to long (from the top shaft downwards)

32mm from the top of the bot-tom section of the top shaft was considered adequate.

trigger path

trigger

directional switch

speed icons

How to actually make the directional switch work...

The trigger sensor on the tech pack, can be changed by moving the opage arrow switch up (for clockwise - which is actually right [if the user is behind the drill]), the middle is locked and down for anti-clockwise.

By mapping the bottom left illustration over the top, this allows the exterior mapping to coincide with the trigger mechanism itself.

Although the component isn’t detailed - it proves the concept. Essentially the trigger switch (grey arrow under the sliding form (un-detailed) is connected to the sliding display that alerts the user as to which set-ting they are using.

Torque Form Considerations/Development

chunking the torque dis-play settings, so as not to confuse users so much.

This concept works on the idea of having a partially obscured ring (due to the drills form) that can rotate to change the functions set-tings. After making a model, it was obvious that it was not very ergonomic.

This concept, uses the idea of slicing the top shafts form into 3 sections, so the middle part can be twisted (changing the torque function). This seemed like the easiest solution to be-gin with, although the resulting aesthetic was rather jarring.

The bottom part of the above sketch begins to deal with the display of information con-cerning the torque feature. The bottom sketch shows the final concept

simple ring between body and chuck

The final design of the torque ring consists of 2 snap hook assemble Poly carbonate halves. Each half has four recessed slots within its form to increase its grip when twisting between set-tings).

The various settings are shown pictorially not numerically, due to the pictorial superiority principle.

screwing range drilling range

When using the pressure sensitive trigger, there are two main ranges - one for fasten-ing, and the other for drilling. To maintain consistency and develop user recognition, this is conveyed using the same icons that are present on the torque feature. The first range is accessed as soon as the user exerts a force on the trigger. The upper limit of this setting is petitioned by a slight resistance in the trigger. After pressing a little more, the user can then enter the second range for drilling.

By placing the icons on the trigger itself, they move with the trigger creating a proximity relationship between the two (strengthening the perception of relatedness).

Upon close inspection, it can be seen that the icons used on the trigger are the same as those used on the torque ring, the only difference being scale. By doing this, it creates a certain level of consistency, making the system easy to understand and eventually retain.

Detail of the torque ring in use

Chuck Development

As one of our personas, Cassandra, suffers from a RSI injury in both of her elbows the twist tightening chuck system began to seem redundant. With all of those tight rist movements, it would be no surprise if she didn’t inflame her elbows.

In order to counter this, a quick release chuck was designed from scratch.

Break through in chuck design.

By having the inner portion angled, parrallel to the outer housing of the chuck. When the outer chuck is pulled away from the body, the tensioning springs (that keep the hex head drill bits within it) can be sprung away from the centre, allowing the bits to be removed.

The screen captures show the chuck at rest and then pulled. In order for this to be acheived, the main spring is press fit-ted into the outer chuck (see seeming undercut on outer chuck) and then welded to the inner chuck

Trigger Continued and Decals

This image shows the tension-ing pins, that allow hex head bits to be inserted and released from the chuck. By pulling on the chuck, these tensioned springs are no able to move outwards (releasing any drill bits).

chuck outer Zn Al alloy, brushed

chuck inner, D6AC alloy steel

torque ring PC spring, spring steel ASTM A228

chuck collar, D6AC

Hex head,drill bit

quick pull, chuck sub assembly - exploded view

Packaging

Torgen’s packaging/docking station is simple. It is one piece of Zn Al alloyed metal with a brush finish. When the drill is placed on the dock, it is au-tomatically plugged into the charging area.

The top of the dock has a re-cess to help locate the drill.

Drill bits are stored in the front section and as such are acces-sible from both side by pulling or pushing.

The recesses in the middle are for longer drill bits (not hex head).

Pad Printed information to prompt the user.

the crimp by

torgen(a cordless drill for compact housing)

polycarbonate(PC) housing

7.2V li-ion

2Ah

overmould grip

DC power tool switch (with locking

7.2V brushless micro motor/ gearbox assembly

converter for drill (PC) slider

trigger, brushed alloy of Zn and Al brushed alloy of Zn and Al

exploded view

Detail of the housings snap hook fastening system.

side view of internals

Detail of Final Model