Sno-Yo
A breakdown of the final assembly process for the sno-yo. The body and snowman pieces were injection molded from CNC machined molds, while the dome and stand were thermoformed through 3-D printed (SLA) molds.
Each yo-yo had nine injection molded pieces per half, or 18 total.
What is it?:
As a part of MIT’s Manufacturing Process class (2.008) fall 2018, I worked with a team of five other students to design and manufacture 50 snow globe themed yo-yos, or “sno-yos.” Our team practiced the end-to-end design and manufacturing process, from concept generation through mold machining and production runs.
How did you contribute?:
Our yo-yo design had 18 injection molded pieces per sno-yo, so our team equally divided the work through the semester to go along with the progress of the yo-yo. At the beginning of the semester, most of the work I did was in 3D CAD and mold manufacturing, while the latter part of the semester was spent trouble shooting our molds and tweaking our molding parameters for best fit.
Through the class, our team learned and practiced a wide range of technical skills including computer aided design (CAD), design for manufacturing and assembly, computer aided machining (CAM), stero-lithography (SLA) 3-D printing, thermoforming, injection molding, and statistical process control basics.
Biggest Takeaways:
Natural cause and variation in production are important to consider when designing for manufacturing
Designing for assembly is critical for scaling
Selecting appropriate manufacturing methods and process control techniques depending on product goals
Collaborators:
Nicolas Arons, Katie Henshaw, Rianna Jitosho, Veronica Labelle, and Anya Quenon.
All 50 completed injection molded yo-yos!
