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