For the bottle opener project, my partner was Aditi. We began with a design that resembled a triangular hole, but it quickly became clear that there was no way to make it sleek and slim, yet able to fit over the bottle. When we tried to make it thinner, we were afraid that the plastic would bend and break.
Next, we considered a hook design. Aditi and I had two different approaches to opening bottles with a hook; she went over the bottlecap and pushed down, while I went under the bottlecap and pushed up. We thought it would be a unique idea to try and integrate the two designs together, and create a bottle opener that could work both ways.
Originally, we considered making an oblong object with opposite facing hooks on either end. Next, we considered one hook in the center of the piece that could be grabbed from either side, and flipped depending on the user’s preference. Finally, we settled for a design that had the hooks localized at one end, facing each other.
The first double-hooked design out of foam core fit the dimensions of the bottle well- we mostly paid attention to the height of the cap to ensure the hook would fit underneath it, and the diameter/radius of the cap, to ensure that the opposite hook was placing force where it was needed. This design was quite promising, since it was smaller and key-chain sized. Once we cut it, we found out that while it could indeed open a bottle, it was chipping a lot because the points were far too thin, so there was too much force being applied to them.
According to our cantilever calculations, increasing the moment of inertia would decrease the maximum stress on the bottle opener. This was the logic behind our second design, which was an iteration of the first double-hook opener, but now with thicker hooks that had a greater cross section area, therefore a greater moment of inertia.
Another problem we had with our original rectangular double-hook design was that it was somewhat uncomfortable to hold, since the corners dug into your palm. With a newfound mastery of Solidworks, we took the thicker double-hook design and gave it a new, more whimsical shape- that of a rabbit drawn with entirely circles and ellipses.
Unfortunately, despite being functional, the plastic hooks were still chipping and being gouged away by the skirt of the metal cap. With time closing in on us, we decided to finally abandon the double hook idea in favor of making one functional bottle opener. To avoid chipping, we also sacrificed some design elements to make it bulkier, but compensated by giving it an ergonomic design that fits the curvature of an entire hand.
Our final design opened the bottle with moderate difficulty, and it wasn’t as visually pleasing as some of our other designs like the rabbit. Had I more time, I would have liked to revisit the double-hook idea and iterate until I came up with a design that did not chip. Alternatively, I would have liked to take one of our more aesthetically pleasing designs and made it out of a different material. Still, I am overall proud of my first experience with laser cutting and Solidworks, and I look forwards to improving as the class progresses.
Props to Aditi for being a wonderful partner.
