As a Design Engineering Intern @ Ergonomic Solutions, my team and I analyzed and redesigned their VanGo mobile office desk
As a Design Engineering Intern @ Ergonomic Solutions, the industry leader in mobile offices (think: desk in a ford transit for real estate agents, construction foremen, etc.), my team of three analyzed and redesigned their mobile office desk.
While working virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic, we fleshed out the issues with the original desk models, brainstormed solutions for each subsystem of the desk, and arrived at a modular design that was able to ship flat. To wrap everything up, I wrote a report detailing the design and rationale of each part and organized our CAD so it could be utilized in future iterations.
Ergonomic Solutions // Design Engineering Intern
April 2020 – September 2020
Zach Shonfeld, Jack Eichenlaub, Benjamin Yost
Solidworks 19 / Design Report Writing / Communication Through Sketching / Remote/Virtual Design Process / ANSYS FEA Testing
Takeaways.
I improved my ability to explore concepts and communicate ideas through sketching and CAD – partly resulting from this being a fully virtual design process, so I couldn't build and test prototypes as much as I was used to.
In writing the design rationale report individually, I felt that I solidified my understanding of the human-centered design process I learned at Northwestern – leaving me with a sense of confidence that I could execute it again independently as I moved into new projects.
If you are interested in learning more about our design process, feel free to explore the project details below!
Ergonomic Solution's original mobile office design was inflexible, difficult to modify, and had limited appeal outside of their existing clients.
Problems with original design
• Inflexible desk design – the keyboard tray was difficult to adjust and the drawers came in one set configuration.
• Distinct components b/w models – complicated the manufacturing process and increased the number of SKUs needed.
• No components could ship flat – increased the cost of shipping and the potential for the parts to be damaged during transit.
We used simple sketches to brainstorm, communicate potential solutions, and arrive at a new concept for the VanGo desk series.
Our design team utilized sketching to communicate and work through our 40+ initial ideas. Below, you can see some of the simple sketches I created to explore ideas for drawer and hutch improvements.
I created simple visual layouts of potential desk frame improvements to synthesize our brainstorming and communicate potential solutions to our client (first image). This included the middle option, breaking down the desk frame into its "base rectangles", which the team moved forward with.
Using the frame's base rectangles, I laid out the different parts that would be needed for three desk models.
This layout also helped our team flesh out the modularity of the new 400/600/800 concept: having a base model that customers could add one or two sets of drawers to, rather than just having two distinct desks like the original system.
I conducted finite element analysis (FEA) to ensure our hutch design was structurally sound.
In ANSYS Workbench, I modeled a 60lb load downward on a mock external monitor arm.
The resulting deformation in the slatwall is depicted (partial range of tests shown).
The insignificant deformation (max 0.171in) in the hutch, combined with the overestimate of the 60lb load, helped me preliminarily conclude that the new design of the hutch retained the strength it needed in the van environment.
A new modular, flexible mobile office system.
After redesigning the desktop, frame, drawers + locking mechanism, and hutch integration, we arrived at an exciting, modular mobile office system.
The system is centered around the base model (no drawers), with the ability to add one or two custom drawer units to fit the customer's needs.
Among several improvements, the desks are now produced with many of the same parts, optimizing the manufacturing resources needed, and the entire desk can now be shipped flat.
I wrote a design rationale report to document my design team's work and serve as a reference for future design decisions.
I executed a 70+ page design rationale report that detailed the problems with the original desks, our team's design process, and our redesign of each subsystem of the desk.
This report will be utilized by Ergonomic Solutions to direct future testing of our design and as a reference if they need information about any subsystem of the desk.
Click here to see a preview of the report!