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