Hedgehog Yo-Yo
The main focus of the class Design and Manufacturing II was to learn about the different manufacturing processes. In lab, we worked in teams of six to design and create yoyos. We utilized thermoforming and injection molding to manufacture 50 yoyos.
Our team decided to design a hedgehog yo-yo. We wanted to keep the overall design organic by incorporating an asymmetric pattern for the spikes and a realistic leg design. To avoid undercuts, we made the nose more cartoon-ish and made the eyes something we would add on in post-processing.
After developing a CAD for each of the parts, I used CAM to develop toolpaths for machining. The spikes proved to be the most difficult to both CAD and CAM as each spike was made to avoid undercuts and ensure machinability. In the end, the spikes took 6 hours to machine!
Each of our parts needed to be remade a few times to account for design changes and shrinkage in our parts. Since we needed a press-fit between the base and spikes and the spikes were our most complicated part, we designed around the parameters of the spikes. Thus, to account for shrinkage, we modified the base several times.
Our thermoformed part was a stand for our hedgehog yo-yo to rest on. Since we wanted to make it an organic grassy design, we decided to use rice and epoxy to mimic the texture of grass. As we ran more cycles with the thermoformer, the rice began to wear away, becoming small nubs.
By the end, we were able to create 50 yo-yos, each with their center of mass balanced out with insert-molded washers. We presented our yo-yo in Lobby 7 at MIT for people to see our final products.
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To learn more about the process of manufacturing our yo-yo, visit our team website with the link below.