Group 14 - Nerf Vortex Pyragon Blaster
Contents |
Introduction
Our group plans to display the skills required to reverse engineer products.
Product
The Nerf Vortex Pyragon is a disc shooter that can hold 40 discs in the given drum magazine.
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Gate 1
Work Proposal
The disassembly of our product, Nerf Pyragon, is anticipated to be a unproblematic procedure. The tools we anticipate we will need are a Phillips head screwdriver, flat head screwdriver, and a rubber hammer. The Nerf gun is assembled with mostly Phillips screws so the Phillips head screwdriver will be the most needed tool we use. The flat head screwdriver will be helpful in prying apart the plastic gun and parts inside it. Also, the rubber hammer will be useful to aid in prying apart the plastic parts involved in our Nerf gun product. We predict it will take approximately three hours to dissect our product. This involves taking it apart and analyzing the parts inside of the product. We assumed about an hour for disassembly, an hour for analysis, and an hour to reassemble the gun. There are a few challenges we foresee in the dissection of our product.
Challenges
The clip involved with our Nerf product appears to be the greatest challenge as far as complexity. The disc ammunition is loaded through a top opening into a designated chamber. Once the chamber is full a lever mechanism is used to rotate the chambers so the next one can be filled. This is repeated four times, and as the gun fires it rotates backwards to its original position. This means there are several locking and unlocking mechanisms involved with loading and firing, which means more dis assembly, analysis, and reassembly. The pump on the end of the gun performs several operations with one quick motion. When pumped a disc is chambered to be fired, the spring is compressed, and the trigger is primed. Because of the number of duties performed by this piece of the gun, the pump will require special attention. The trigger is challenging also because it performs more than one task. It simultaneously releases the spring to fire the disc, and readies the next disc to be fired. With special attention to the magazine, pump, and trigger our group should be able to overcome the more difficult concepts of the Nerf toy. Each member of our group has their own capabilities to benefit the dissection of our product. Regardless of capabilities, each member also has shortcomings that may affect our work. The table below demonstrates these pros and cons.
- Ryan - Capabilities: Previous experience with Nerf guns, technical writing skills, work with 3D modeling Shortcomings: Bad time management skills
- Rachel - Capabilities: Good time management skills, leadership ability, communication skills, typing skills Shortcomings: Never owned a Nerf gun
- Peter - Capabilities: Previous experience with Nerf guns, had classes in physics and CAD Shortcomings: Hasty
- Brenden - Capabilities: Previous experience with Nerf guns, has experience with CAD Shortcomings: Bad time management skills
Management Proposal
To better manage the project we have assigned roles to each group member to lighten the work load and better organize the task. Rachel has been assigned Project Manager, due to her proficiency in leadership and time management. Peter has taken the Web Expert position, because he has previous experience with web programming. His position will require him to update the wiki when needed and handle other online research tasks. Brenden offered to take the Communication Liaison role, and will be relaying information from the group to the professors and the other way around. Ryan will be filling in the Tech Expert position, and will be revising and working on technical papers throughout the project.
- Contact Information: Brenden Burry, Comm. Liaison: Email - Brendenb@buffalo.eduPhone - 585-409-9471
Meeting Information
Wednesdays at 5pm at group study area in the library. Sundays may be used as optional meeting times should we need more time or unseen complications arise. The following weekly schedule puts the group ahead of the current schedule, which means we can be better prepared for any emergency events that may come up during the course of the project.
Weekly Schedule
- Week one (Oct 7 - Oct 13):
Gate 2 - Dissection/Analysis
- Week two (Oct 14 - Oct 20):
Gate 2 - Corrective Action Review
- Week three (Oct 21 - Oct 27):
Gate 3 -Analyze Info/Test
- Week four (Oct 28 - Nov 3):
Gate 3 - Second Corrective Action Review
- Week five (Nov 4 - Nov 10):
Gate 4 - Conclusions
- Week six (Nov 11 - Nov 17):
Gate 4 - Final Corrective Action Review
- Week seven (Nov 18 - Nov 24):
Thanksgiving
- Week eight (Nov 25 - Dec 1):
Gate 5 - Documentation and preparation
- Week nine (Dec 2 - Dec 8):
Gate 5 - Finalize and Submit
Product Archaeology
In our initial assessment of our product, we familiarized ourselves with the product. This allowed us to gather information regarding our product to successfully complete our dissection. Our product was developed in the beginning of the year 2012. Key economic concerns were the price so it could be made into a cheap toy for the poor economy. Key global concerns were the safety of the product since it has real gun like features. The product was planned to be sold in North America and the UK. The toy is designed for the safe enjoyment for kids ages 8 and older. The Nerf gun is intended to be used at home and helps give young kids a fun and safe toy to play with. While being a children’s toy, the Nerf gun has some complexities. It uses mechanical work to turn potential spring energy into kinetic energy. The components consist of a clip, clip mechanisms, trigger, pump, jam release. Also this product has a complicated camber to hold the foam discs. The interactions between the components themselves are not too complex. It is made up of mostly plastic, with some metals screws and 40 foam discs. We believe that there are also metal springs inside the product. The complexity of this product makes it more enjoyable to play with. The simplicity of using the toy makes it easy for most users to pick it up and perform with it, often with very little previous knowledge about the product. The design is as intuitive as load, pump, and shoot. Since the design itself is simple, and most of the material being made of plastic, the Nerf weapon requires little to no maintenance throughout the course of its lifetime. Many of Nerf’s other products function in a similar fashion. Some guns offer advantages such as auto fire, while others have disadvantages such as smaller clip sizes. The price difference between products can vary depending on the complexity of toy, where the most complex Nerf gun is upwards of 150 dollars, and the simplest as low as four.
Gate 2
Purpose
- In our product dissection, we knew that the drum clip of the gun was going to be complex. We planned on a short amount of time to dissect our entire product and take notes and another hour to put our product back together. While working on the gate, we realized how important it was for every component to be placed in a precise position, or else it would compromise the guns entire function. We found that the spring in the reloading mechanism in the drum was hard to place, in order to put the drum back together. We also noticed that the guns chamber was placed in an awkward position, which led to the necessity of close observations of the chamber placement and its restraints, which made it difficult to remove.
- When dissecting our product, we measured the difficulty of each step by the time it took to take apart the object and the amount of observation needed to complete the step.
- The difficulties are arranged as follows:
- Easy: The components were held in by simple screws or springs that could be taken out in a short amount of time with no further observation needed.
- Medium: The components were in plain view and the agents that were holding in the components were visible.
- Hard: The components demanded a high amount of observation in order to understand how to take the product apart and complete the dissection step. This may be due to awkward positioning of screws and springs that held in the object.
- The difficulties are arranged as follows:
Cause For Corrosive Action
During our dissection, we attempted to follow our work and management plans. Our plans however did not work out perfectly. The tools we anticipated using were accurate, but the time we anticipated was very inaccurate. We stated, “We assume about an hour for disassembly, an hour for analysis, and an hour to reassemble the gun.” It was correct that it took approximately only an hour for disassembly but to analysis everything took far longer. We had to really look into our product to figure out what parts preformed certain functions. Some parts sprung out and we had trouble finding where it sprung from and the direction that it went into our product. We spent a lot of time trying to put parts back in different directions until we got it back the correct way. Once we figured out how all the parts went into our product, we made conclusions on how those parts work to make our product preform the desired function. Another challenge we had was that on October 17th, a group member did not show up and follow our plans as we stated, "We will meet Wednesdays at 5pm". To over come this challenge, the other group members had to spend extra time to attempt to get our project to where we wanted to be on that day. That was to have all the pictures taken and start uploading them to our wiki. Our management plans are going as planned and helps everyone to know their role for the project. Rachel fulfills her duties to organize meetings, Peter keeps the wiki up to date, Brenden provides the group with needed information, and Ryan overlooks the group work.
Dissection of Product
| Step | Description | Image |
| 1 | *Take the drum clip apart from the nerf gun by pressing the orange lever, located above the trigger, and pulling the drum out of it's place in the gun.
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| 2 | *There are 5 screws (indicated by the orange boxes) in the cocking mechanism. By taking the screws out of the cocking mechanism and taking the cocking mechanism off of the frame, you can take off the rear cap (indicated by the green box), take out the 11 screws on the frame (indicated by the blue boxes) and separate the frames into two parts.
It is possible that the manufacturer might have enabled the easy removal of the cocking mechanism and frame in order for a consumer to customize the gun, such as coloring it, but it looks like the screws are the cheapest alternative to connecting the frames. |
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| 3 | *You will now have two parts of a frame. The trigger components (indicated by the green box in picture A)are held together by 4 screws (indicated by the blue boxes in picture B) and a spring (indicated by the yellow bow in picture B). By taking out the screws and the springs, you can take out all the trigger components.
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| 4 | *You know can see two main components of the gun, the coil (in picture A) and the chamber (in picture B). | A) B)
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| 5 | *After close observation and awkward placement of a screwdriver, it is possible to remove the chamber from the gun. Now you can see how the chamber and it's components work together and how they connect to the rest of the gun.
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| 6 | *To take apart the drum, take out the 6 screws on the top of the drum (indicated by the white boxes and arrow) and remove the orange stem and black cap. Upon removing the orange stem, a spring and orange cap will be released. Take out the 4 screws on the bottom cover (indicate by the white boxes in picture B) and remove the bottom cover
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A) B)
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| 7 | *Now you can see the components that make up the trigger for the reloading mechanism. Taking off the spring (indicated by the yellow box) lets the reloading trigger (indicated by the purple box) free. You can now take the trigger, spring, and rod (indicated by the blue box) off. Now, take out the 6 screws (indicated by the white boxes) and take off the black lid.
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| 8 | *You should not have the components shown in pictures A and B. | A) B)
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| 9 | *By taking out the 4 screws (indicated by the white boxes) on the orange lid, you will release the 3 other springs and spring caps. Your result should like look picture B.
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A) B)
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| 10 | *Once you remove the springs, you have an empty barrel and you can see the design that is intended to keep the disc bullets in place. |  
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Conclusions
- Cocking Mechanism:
The energy that is used to propel the disk from the gun is created by the cocking mechanism. From the user pulling back on the mechanism the energy is stored in the coil. The users kinetic energy is stored in the coil as potential energy. The cocking mechanism is located at the bottom of the Vortex Nerf Gun, attached to a plastic grip for easy access. This cocking mechanism is made specific for this gun because of size and location. But the basic concept could be used for other potential Nerf guns. This mechanism is not intended to be disassembled, but it can be with a Phillips screwdriver with minimal difficulty.
- Clip:
The Vortex Nerf Gun can hold forty disks at a time. The ammo storage device for this gun is the circular clip. The clip has four storage compartments for disks. The clip is designed to be removed from the gun. But the clip is not designed to be disassembled because of spring-loaded components. It can be done with a Phillips screwdriver at a very high difficulty. This subsystem is designed for particularly for this gun because of the new disks it holds. But this clip design could be used in other Nerf gun designs. The clip could be designed with a less complex method and still function properly.
- Trigger:
The trigger releases the energy stored in the coil. It is made up of plastic components and springs. This subsystem is not intended to be taken apart but can be with a medium difficulty using a Phillips screwdriver. The design of the trigger is basic and could be used in another design for a Nerf gun to increase the revenue on this design.
- Coil:
The Vortex Nerf Gun is a coil driven disk gun. The coil stores potential energy from the cocking mechanism and gives off kinetic energy when triggered onto the disk. This subsystem could be easily changed to a more or less powerful coil depending on desired product cost. Also the coil could be used for a different gun. This component is not intended to be taken apart, but it can be with a Phillips screwdriver at a high difficulty.
- Barrel Chamber:
The Barrel Chamber is a major subsystem to the gun. Its main objective is to receive, hold, and transfer energy to the disk. This component is made specifically for the style of Nerf gun because it shoots foam disks instead of darts. It could be used in another design for a disk gun because it is an internal component that could be placed in any outer shell. This was the most difficult piece to remove because it was designed not to come out having glued components. But can be with a Phillips screwdriver and a little muscle grease.
- Outer Shell:
The outer shells purpose is to hold all the internal subsystem components together in their proper places, and hold the outer design of the gun. This gun could be sold as a totally new gun with the same internal parts but a different scheme for the design of the outer shell. The outer shell could be easily taken apart with a Phillips screwdriver.
Citation
[1] Image take from http://www.hasbro.com/nerf/en_US/shop/details.cfm?R=CC2F6285-5056-900B-10DF-80AF182AF29E:en_US
