The goal of this product was to do a full teardown of an existing product, examine its overall design/uses, and understand its components enough to re-create it digitally as a full model.
We First had a Thorough Look
This project was part of a group exercise that sought to employ our design skills as well as allow us to learn more about the components that made up some common products we might interact with daily. We were assigned an Oral-B Pro 500 toothbrush, so we examined the packaging thoroughly and took note of aspects such as its circular imagery. We also took the basic dimensions of the product casing to be used later.
Next, We Took it All Apart
We then took apart the toothbrush and identified each component, making sure to digitally document and dimension with calipers as we went along. Simple schematics were also made to ensure the parts could be reassembled.
We Then Took to Digitizing
After carefully recording the dimensions of each component, the modeling tasks were split among the group and modeling began in SOLIDWORKS. I took the jobs of the toothbrush head, inner component casing, battery holster, and DC motor. After each step in the process, we would compare our models to ensure they would eventually fit together in the final assembly.
Putting it Back Together Again
One of our last jobs was to digitally reassemble our product. Because we took the time to double-check our dimensioning at each step, we were able to put together a clean and somewhat accurate final result.
Making it Anew
Our final step of the project was to redesign the product with a specific customer in mind. Our group was tasked to design for Emily, who was a 24-year-old woman with cerebral palsy whose condition makes it difficult to brush her teeth, which she wants to be able to do independently. After briefing our customer's functional requirements and needs, we designed and I created the graphics for a risk matrix and system requirements. We were then ready to create a re-design of the toothbrush with Emily at the heart of the prototype.
Final Design
We created a 360-degree brush with an easy, table-mounted toothpaste dispenser for easy access. We wanted the brush to be less likely to fall out of Emily's hand, so we added a silicone grip integrated into the handle. To tackle the toothpaste issue, we made a small housing concept that would hold the toothpaste upside down, and similar to hand sanitizer, would dispense onto the brush when pushed against.
Toothpaste housing render.
