The Hawaiian Ice Shaver

How it works: Excavation

Blog Post 1

Hawaiian Ice’s model S900A ice shaver is an interesting piece of machinery when it comes down to its material and energy costs.  The average life expectancy for the product is estimated to be around 15 years when used on a daily basis.  In that amount of time, one can expect to have shaved almost 5,500 pounds of ice and use a whopping 19,710,000W in the process.  This may seem like a lot, but let’s put that energy use into perspective. 

The same amount of wattage used by the shaved ice machine could also power a 150W light bulb for just short of 14 days of straight use.  That amount of energy is generated in less than two-thirds of a second by the average large-scale hydropower system.  The machine itself is only composed of a small steel blade, a few ounces of plastic, and a standard AC motor.  These materials are inexpensive and are used judiciously in assembly; none of the materials are used excessively, minimizing the environmental impact and material waste.  So, it seems as though the product’s environmental impact is actually one that is fairly friendly.

             The shaved ice machine is also ideal cost-wise for the consumer.  With the costs of the machine itself, energy use, ice required, and replacement blades, one can expect to spend roughly $350 on the product in its lifetime.  Compare that to piecing together a similar product by your lonesome and you will assuredly spend much more in the process. 

            In short, the electric shaved ice machine by Hawaiian Shaved Ice is consumer friendly while still being environmentally cautious.  When the machine eventually breaks down, the plastic could be recycled and the motor could still have potential to be fixed, allowing you to prolong the unit’s life or even use the materials for something new.  All in all, this product has been designed and engineered to be top quality through minimal resources.

By: Ryan Romeo

Blog Post 2

This shaved ice machine has a relatively simple but efficient design. The product is just a mechanical engine that turns gears which power a metal plate that spins. This plate pushes down upon the ice when force is applied to the top of the machine, allowing the plate to push the ice with force onto the razor, in turn shaving the ice. That is essentially the full extent of the functionality of the machine.

This machine would be considered a luxury item, as shaved ice is not really a necessity anywhere. This being said, the people who use this product are probably not impoverished, as they would not be using their money on such an extravagance. Additionally, this product is not terribly expensive so anyone who can afford to spare 60 bucks for a desert maker would be a potential purchaser of the product. Also, this product creates shaved ice treats. It’s possible that buyers of this product are more likely to live in warmer climates where shaved ice would be a more enjoyable desert.

The retail value of this product is $60. In designing this product, the creators used a medium quality plastic casing as well as a medium quality engine to drive the machine. The cogs are plastic and the product would be considered a medium quality appliance. The plastic probably cost only a few dollars to make if that, and the engine is probably about 5-10 at most as well. The cost to use this product once includes the $60 initial investment, as well as a few cents of electricity per usage. Possible replacement razors could be needed, running about 50 cents a piece.

By: Robert Neal

Blog Post 3

Manufacturing of the Hawaiian Ice Shaver

The Hawaiian Ice Shaver has a plastic shell and plastic gears. There is also a small AC motor and a metal blade. The motor and blade are created outside the company, is brought in and assembled with the plastic pieces.

At the end of this products life, all the plastic can be recycled or remanufactured. The blade can be either recycled or remanufactured too. Depending on what condition the motor is in, it can be reused or broken down to separate parts and recycled. As far as environmental impact goes, the creation of the plastic is the worst part of this product. The ABS plastic is made from oil. The transportation of the product and materials is another impact because of the use of gasoline.

The costs associated with the manufacturing are the cost of plastic, steel, and motors. The ABS plastic costs about $2.42 a pound. The steal for the blade is $0.40-0.45 a pound. Finally, one motor costs around $20. This is why the product has a higher price for consumers than expected. The product could be made better by using a more durable material for the shell such as stainless steel. They could also use a higher-powered motor too. The reason the company doesn’t do this is because it would be more expensive to buy in higher priced motors. The price to manufacture the stainless steel would not be beneficial enough to out way the price.

By:James Williams

Blog Post 4

To design this product, a fair amount of science and mathematics would be involved. For example, the engineers had to make sure that the engine supplied enough force to crush the ice. Also the speed at which the crusher revolved had to be calculated in order to have the proper amount of ice be shaved over time. Additionally, the materials used had to be analyzed, the structural strength of the plastic had to be calculated as well as the sharpness and endurance of the blade was enough to sustain large amounts of usage.

A specific example of how math and science was incorporated in the design of the product would be determining the force required to crush the ice and designing the product to be able to deliver that force. This product is intended for usage within the United States so the engineers had to determine what kind of power the ice shaver would use, and create an engine and gearbox that would use said power to deliver the optimum output of force to crush and turn the ice. This calculation would involve converting the power consumption into joules of energy per second. This information could then be used to design a gear box that would output the correct output of power. To correctly model this situation, one would have to make assumptions about the energy efficiency of the device. A device that consumes 55 watts of power may not actually output 55 watts.

By: Trey Bonham

Blog Post 5

Our original product is an ice shaving machine. Although Japan has a colder climate than parts of the United States, shaved ice specific deserts are enjoyed still. In fact, kakigori, a japanese shaved ice desert, is sold virtually everywhere in japan during the warm summer months. Perhaps an equivalent product would be a blender that has ice crushing features.

This shaved ice industry in japan usually was dominated by hand cranked ice machines. With the onset of electric shavers, vendors have been using electric shaved ice machines increasingly more, although hand cranks are still used by more traditional vendors.

We redesigned the product to have an optional manual hand crank that can power the ice crusher. Additionally we would add a can opener feature to the machine, with the hand crank also being able to power the can opener. This hand crank would allow for the machine to operate without power, as a hand cranked machine would allow for usage in emergency situations when no power is available.

By: Whole Team