Our final project involved in our second semester of Design Principles is to do a redesign of an existing hand held product. Our team targeted the consumer line bike pump from the company Crank Brothers.
The existing product features plastic components and shapes that don't match their existing product categories. Also, we found a heavy amount of stress points in the existing method and wish to distribute the workload evenly across the body. And of-course, the refined product should be more sustainable.
Our resolved end result utilized a dual pump system that features angled ends that tuck into the users palms when applying force, removing the stress from the fingers. The dual pump system also removes the problem of a cramped hand being ergonomically gnarled amidst the spokes of the bike tire. Now both arms apply air pressure equally using muscles designed for a heavier workload. The dual pump also distributes the internal stresses in the gaskets across allowing less wear-out of components.
We also chose Aluminum for longevity, recyclability, as well as implied value making the user more likely to not trash the piece.
Machined with Renshape for a works-like model and modeled, rendered and materialized with Blender3D and Maxwell renderer.
