hearts – taking apart the airswimmer

nanzhao

In this assignment I will describe the different parts of the AirSwimmer and their manufacturing process. The AirSwimmer is a toy, which is a fish-shaped helium balloon that can controlled remotely to swim though the air.  The AirSwimmer version with IR remote controller costs about 25$ plus shipping.

The AirSwimmer arrives as a leptop sized box with the following parts:

  • deflated balloon
  • side fin, back fin and tail
  • hooks
  • robber bands
  • double sided tape
  • transparent stickers
  • instruction
  • receiver
  • remote controller
  • a small piece of modelling clay
The user follows a 15 minutes instruction to assemble alle the pieces to the shark that you can see in the picture above. After I took each of parts further apart I get the following components:

IR receiver, motors and motor drivers:

  • 1.5 Volt AAA battery
  • PCB board with: AT24C02 Microprocessor, IR demodulator, MOSFETs for motor control, IR receiver, LED, switch
  • 2 dc motors with: gears, spring, shaft
  • plastic housing front: 4 parts, 6 screws, hot glue
  • housing tail: 4 parts, 9 screws, light weight
  • foam between balloon and tail housing
  • housing cover

I imaging the assembly process to contain the following steps:

  • printed circuit board + pick and place
  • injection molding for the blue plastic pieces
  • sonic welding to connect the pieces of the gray case
  • vacuum forming to make the gray case
  • manual assembly, screws, press fit, hot glue, stapler

Remote controller:

  • 3 AAA battery
  • pcb with: IR emitter, modulator, switch, buttons
  • case: 7 parts, 2 buttons, screws

I imaging the assembly process to contain the following steps:

  • printed circuit board + pick and place
  • injection molding for all blue and black pieces
  • manual assembly, screws, press fit, hot glue, stapler

 

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