Group 9 2012 Product Explination

Revision as of 19:27, 28 November 2012

Cause For Corrective Action

• For this gate, we have been able to continue our good time management. We were able to successfully put together meeting times that fit for everyone, as well as allow us to finish our core work early to allow time for editing in gate two. This is something that we are looking to carry over into this gate. We have had an early meeting to get things started as we go into this week. We will also have to allow extra time to create our presentation which is due on the same day. This is a factor that we did not have to consider before. One other issue we will deal with is going through the assembly without being in the dissection lab. We have taken our gun out of the dissection lab so we will now need to bring the necessary tools to reassemble it from one of the group member’s houses. Other than these few considerations, this will be a straight forward assignment.
• At the end of the project, we were able to do all of this successfully. We had no problem with time management and were able to get all required tasks completed on time. We had no problem getting all of the necessary tools to school for assembly.

Product Assembly

Difficulty Scale

Difficulty for the following steps are rated 1 to 3 as shown. The difficulty scale is measured based on the difficulty compared to the other assembly steps. The difficulty was measured based on the amount of time spent, number of tools needed and the force needed.

   1: Easy: Minimal effort required. No tools needed and very little time spent.
   2: Moderate: Single tool needed and some time spent on dissection.
   3: Difficult: Delicate care needed to make sure no parts were broken. Difficult time taking parts apart and removing screws

Step	Description	Difficulty	Image
#1	Oreintated the dart advance drum to ready for assembly.	1
#2	Slid magazine housing onto shaft of dart advance drum.	1
#3	Inserted axle through drum and into the slot located in the center of the dart advanced drum.	1
#4	Set rapid feed assit knob on top of axle.	1
#5	Placed magazine housing cover on top of the magazine assembly and inserted five screws.	2
#6	Oreintated outermost casing for re-assembly.	1
#7	Place firing chamber into correct place into outermost casing. Slots hold firing chamber into place.	1
#8	Inserted cocking arm pushrod into firing chamber.	1
#9	Push rod lock is inserted into appropiate slots located at the end of the cocking arm pushrod.	1
#10	Screwed together push rod lock with two phillips head screws.	1
#11	Barrell is inserted into the push rod lock extending the end of the outermost casing..	1
#12	Muzzle is slid into approiate slot along the end of the outermost casing holding the barrell into place.	1
#13	inserted spring over the push rod lock.	1
#14	Placed firing spring around the shaft extending out of the back of the firing chamber.	1
#15	Trigger is inserted into the approiate spot in outermost casing. Care needed to be provided to be sure the spring stayed into the correct slot.	2
#16	Holding bracket is slid around the the shaft extending out the back of the firing chamber and around the firing chamber. Care needed to be taken to assure that the spring stayed in the correct position. It is then slid into the correct spot assuring proper allignment.	2
#17	Firing spring is compressed into compressed position inside the outmost casing. It is held into place while the other half of outmost casing is being assembled.	3
#18	Other half of the outermost casing is placed on top of the assembly.	3
#19	All the screws are inserted into the housing and tightned with a phillips head screwdriver.	3
#20	Stock is inserted onto the end of the gun. Two screws are inserted and tightned to secure it to gun.	2
#21	The cocking arm foregrip is inserted on the circular eye hook of the cocking arm pushrod. Four screws are inserted and tighnted to secure it together.	2
#22	The magazine locking assembly is then clipped into its approiate location.	1
#23	The final step is to insert the magzine into the magazine locking assembly and then the gun is ready to be fired.	1

Mechanisms

Cocking Mechanism System

One of the major systems that can be found on this toy is the cocking mechanism. This part can be classified as a major subsystem that is required for the rest of the toy to function properly. The major part of the system is the fore-grip that is visible and must be used to compress the firing spring. The visible fore-grip is attached to another mechanism, the Cocking Arm Pushrod which cannot be seen until the outer casing has been removed. These two pieces of the subsystem are directly connected to one another and are what is used to create all of the potential energies used to fire each dart. With its direct connection to the firing chamber, the pushrod extends the lock on the firing chamber which compresses the firing spring that is eventually released once the trigger is pulled to release the dart.

Design Revisions

Dart

The dart is the single most important and iconic system that Nerf has created. The darts have maintained a classical look with the long foam body and a plastic tip. Typically, the plastic tip of the dart is rounded and heavier than the rest of the dart so it can carry the weight of the dart through the parabolic flight path that it takes. In order to make these darts more efficient and cost effective, multiple changes can be made to the dart. The foam body of the dart can be replaced or coated with a material that resembles teflon to eliminate as much friction as possible while firing to maintain as much energy as possible while it travels through the barrel as well as reinforcing the dart to increase its durability. This would open up a new market for the darts alone which would lead consumers to purchase these high-performance darts to be used with any Nerf gun the currently own.

Cocking Mechanism

The cocking mechanism on this gun is the crucial part in allowing for a faster firing rate. Allows for a rapid firing system in which you hold down the trigger and continuously pump the cocking mechanism and it will fire every time you cock the gun. So allowing for this process to happen faster means a very fast rate of fire. To improve this system we will convert the pumping action into a rotational action. The cocking mechanism will now be loaded by a turn of a crank. This will allow a large cam inside of the gun to turn and push back the current cocking mechanism setup. When it is pushed back, It will be locked into place. If the trigger is held down, then it will automatically fire forward when there is a drop in the cam profile. This will allow the gun to operate in the same fashion that it currently does now, but now has the ability to fire at a more rapid pace. Overall, this new system will prove to be a slightly more expensive design, due to an increased amount of material. But it will still be able to be produced by injection molding, which will keep costs down. It would require roughly the same amount of parts, so there won’t be increase in the number of molds required. The cost of the extra material will essentially be the only expense. From a societal standpoint, this gun will be more desirable in the Nerf community because it is able to perform better than before. This will also negatively affect economic factors, but it will be outweighed by the increase in performance that it will receive.