Sustainable Electric Toothbrush Team 8 Brian Mc Kellar

Sustainable Electric Toothbrush Team 8 Brian Mc. Kellar Rui Liu Brendan Pinder Tom Dittman October 10 th, 2012

Design Activities Completed • • • Customer needs assessment Benchmarking Patent search Product archaeology Concept generation Morphological chart Pugh charts Concept selection Sketch of final design

Project Management We worked as a cohesive unit sometimes dividing the work equally proportioned between the quartet and other times working together on each task.

Customer Needs Safety Sustainability Battery Life Quality Cost Total Weight Safety 1 4 7 3 5 20 . 38 Sustainability . 25 1 4 . 5 5 10. 75 . 20 Battery Life . 14 . 25 1 . 14 . 2 1. 73 . 03 Quality . 33 2 7 1 3 13. 33 . 25 Cost . 2 5 . 33 1 6. 73 . 13 The consumer has told us that safety and quality are more important when considering buying a new electric toothbrush. However, we cannot forget that the main goal of this project is to design a more sustainable toothbrush. We had a few general areas we decided to fix first with the original design of the toothbrush. The batteries are a big waste of space and size in the design. The materials of the toothbrush are another area we considered improving upon. The life of the toothbrush must also be taken into consideration if we want to cut down on the amount of waste created by discarded toothbrushes. Cost is another section our customers care about, not as much as sustainability, quality, or safety, but we should still consider trying to lower the costs.

External Search The first part of the external search consisted of taking many measurements and actually figuring out the inner-workings of the toothbrush through lab reports 1 and 2. Then we searched for patents to the parts and ideas that we had for our new design. Next, we looked in the past to see how the modern toothbrush has developed from toothbrushes of the past. Lastly, we benchmarked our current toothbrush against the competition to see how it compared to its rival designs.

• • • Human Factor Body Design Concepts Thinner body - use less material and easier to hold Curved design - more ergonomic handle and ease of access to back teeth All-around grip - left and right handed BPA-free plastic - more eco-friendly and more sustainable Sliding battery cover - less material and easier to access batteries

Power Generation and Accessories Concepts • • • Rechargeable station - no disposable batteries=less waste Rechargeable AA batteries - less waste from throwing away old batteries Capacitor powered - use less power, therefore making it last longer Solar powered - renewable resource, not harmful to environment Automatic turn-off - no extra use of power when not in use

Energy Mechanism for Brush Head Concepts • • • Motor vibration - motor vibrates to power brush head conserving energy Motor up & down motion - motor moves up and down the brush body Eccentric wheel rotation - wheels slide in different directions as a motor Gear rotation - gears rotate inside as a power mechanism Motor rotation - motor rotates normally

Brush Head Design Concepts • • • Two-piece dual motion - different pieces move independently to clean deeper One-piece dual motion - moves in two directions to reduce user movement Rectangular brush head - more surface area Dome brush head - vibrates to clean teeth easier Custom fit - fits teeth all the way around and is able to clean all sides of teeth at once

Morphological Charts Human factor body design Power generation and accessories Energy mechanism for brush head Brush head design Rechargeable station Motor vibration Two-piece dual motion Rechargeable AA batteries Motor up & down motion One-piece dual motion Capacitor powered Eccentric wheel rotation Rectangular brush head BPA-Free Plastic Solar powered Gear rotation Dome brush head Sliding Battery Cover Automatic turn-off Motor rotation Custom fit Thinner Body Curved Design All-around Grip

Criteria for Selection, Pugh Charts

Final Design

Details of Final Design 1. Two-side custom fit brush head and micro vibration technology provide overall clean; replaceable bristles save more materials than replaceable head. 2. All-around grip and BPA-Free Plastic provide safety to product users. 3. Curved body fits hand comfortably, providing pleasing experience. 4. Waterproof charge station cap provides safety.