[Eric Lagman]

Here is another project I finished recently. It is an ink pen that dispenses hiya gel mints. They are tiny round balls with liquid mint inside that dissolves in your mouth. http://images.google.com/images?svnum=1 ... iya++mints I would send you to the companys actual website that makes the mints, but it is an assault on your audio senses. It was designed to be a giveaway for an ad specialties company. You buy a certain number and get your logo custom printed on the side and then give them away at trade shows etc. Basically a free giveaway for promotional purposes.

It seems quite simple on the surface, but it had to do a lot. It had to hold at least 25 mints. The pen would always be out. Dispense a mint on every click of the top button. It had to work also with the cap on the top which was quite tricky. Most pens when you put the cap on dont have the cap travel up and down. Below is a more detailed view of the mechanisim. There are many simplier ways to get a mint out of a pen, but this is the direction I was given from the client. I suppose this is the simpliest for the user, just not the simpliest design to execute.

I have some more views rendering at home, and will post them as they get done. This view took 12 hours to get this clear. Im not happy with how the clear polycarbonate turned out. I don't know if this is because of the internal reflections bug, or emitters not going through dielectrics properly. My attenuation was set correctly I believe. The wall thickness of the large clear piece was .06" so my attenuation was set to 1 or 2 cm I believe. Will post more renders as they complete.

[martgreg]

happy waiting mints..lol surely they would be sad that they were next to be eaten by the giant exhibitor!!!

very cool idea!!! lots of parts to it..more than a regular pen.. did you split the barrell for any reason in particular!!! did it go into production???

btw if you dont like me asking questions on non maxwell stuff let me know... do u ever go to any design forums.. if so what!!!

again good work!!

[jjs]

great renderings Eric - did you get my Private Message - not sure if it left here correctly.

TTFN

Jonathan

[Stephen]

ID creation doesn't get better than this. Awesome job Eric.


Wish I was better at SW.

[juan]

Wonderful as usual Eric

Juan

[Eric Lagman]

Thanks fellas. Martgreg I don't mind questions non related to maxwell. Ask away. The barrell was split into two materials for a few reasons. It needed to be clear in the top half so you could see the mints. Also I needed to create a feature the button could snap under. This means it has to be molded with a core from the bottom. Also for assembly purposes it is simplier this way. For what it needed to do, and how it would be put together two piece barrel was optimal. If it just had to hold an ink cartridge then for sure one piece barrell would be preffered. It was scheduled for manufacturing in China, but got cancelled at the last minute because it cost 80cents to make instead of 30cents One less thing to clutter up a landfill though I guess.

As far as product design forums I have been to a few, but never posted. Two I have ran across that seem good are http://www.productdesignforums.com/ and http://www.core77.com if you are job hunting http://www.coroflot.com is always a good one for ID. Although I find the Core 77 site full of irony. Its a design website that has bad design on its page. It has good information though. Hope this helps. Thanks again all for kind words. I have some other projects, but can't show for a while because of NDA.

[dutch_designer]

As far as product design forums I have been to a few, but never posted. Two I have ran across that seem good are http://www.productdesignforums.com/ and http://www.core77.com if you are job hunting http://www.coroflot.com is always a good one for ID.

Thanks for mentioning my productdesignforums.com site If you have the time perhaps sometime you can post some kind of overview of this project on our site?
Anyways, lovely render, the detail in there is crazy and only the noise gave away that this was in fact a Maxwell render and not a photo!
I so need to learn Solidworks....

[jjs]

Eric - just seen your post - but my PM was on its way.

Having read you post, my PM is not really relevant -

Cost, its a bummer - but 80cents seems a bit steep for the design but I have still get get a handle on how anything is actually costed in China - I think they just think on a number and see if it flys

I am sure you could reduce the component count in your design by getting rid of the spring - build it into the plastic as a intergral flex part in the pen cartridge holder part.

Have the whole top sweet holder move - rather than an additional plunger insider the sweet holder. Then just foil seal the top and clip the pen Lid to it when the pen is in use. Not quite sure why there is a clear barrel and what appears as two blue tinted sleeve parts that fit inside.

But your right about the land fill - the pen should be re-usable and charged up with fresh sweets from a bit packet somewhere.


TTFN


Jonathan

[sandykoufax]

Wow, really great design and render.

the blue polycarbonate material is awesome.

but I think that you'd better reduce DOF blur a little bit.

[Maximus3D]

Holy cow in Batman's cave! i completly missed this thread.
But is that first pic the rendered one or a photo ?! if that's rendered then
you sure done a great job as it fooled me.

Kickass stuff Eric and the modeling is so precise and exact i'm getting envious.

/ Max