When we are repairing tools, we may need a stool to make our repair process more comfortable and convenient. Therefore, we came up with the design of adding a stool to the toolbox. When we repair things in the field, we also encounter a variety of terrain, which requires us to design a stool that can adapt to different terrain. Therefore, we’d like to design a stool box——“stool” +” box”, which can have multiple functions and stand well on different landform. The stool box we design can not only store things in it, but also serve as a chair which can be adjusted according to different kinds of terrain. As long as it is realized, it would help a lot when we are carrying it.
Through market survey, most potential consumers of our product are household owners, and they give priority to the durability, firmness and capacity of our product. After all, they are the most important index for stool and box. As a product for daily convenience, consumers don’t pay much attention to the appearance of the stool box. Consumers don’t have strict requirements on the price of the stool box. Their expectation on the price stays in a suitable interval, so it is easy for us to select durable and firm material to ensure its performance. Therefore, in short, characteristics that should be emphasized in the toolbox are durability, firmness and capacity.
We decided to make the stool an individual part, and it can be combined with the box on its cover through sliding structures. When the stool is taken off, the other part left is a complete box. There are brackets attached to the seat part which allows it to adjust to different terrains. And there is also a handle on the stool for us to carry.
After teamwork throughout the whole semester, we finally finished all the designing, modelling and optimizing work of our project. By function assessment in SolidWorks software, we can state that the foldable stool box will effectively solve the technical problems that the present similar products cannot be horizontally placed in the slope field environment and are single in usage and storage. The final prototype will meet our initial requirements of stability, durability, firmness and capacity. In addition, by cost estimation, we prove that it has its market prospect. Although we cannot manufacture the prototype in reality, we still list all the assembling and manufacturing methods of different parts in detail considering both cost and performance. Several important assumptions are made when we calculate the cost for the product, and the thorough research in the market guarantee the accuracy.
We would like to appreciate Prof. Peizhong Yang for giving us a global view of engineering drawing and cultivating our practical ability to design and manufacture our own prototype. We benefit a lot from the course, which helps us finish the whole project.
