A Water Bottle Holder for a Locomotive
bottlebrace
Brief
To design a bottle holder for a sleeper class locomotive.
Timeframe
6 weeks
A bit about this project
During my graduation project internship, I worked at a studio that was designing a sleeper class locomotive from scratch. It was a massive project, and I contributed to it in a supporting role. While I focused on my own graduation project, I also helped out with the locomotive design here and there.
One specific task my mentor assigned me was to design and create a prototype for a water bottle holder that could be for the aforementioned locomotive. This project's decisions were made by me and supported by my mentor. Hope you enjoy the product as much I enjoyed the process!
So, what are the design requirements?
Compact
Design
Simplified Mechanism
Wall Mounting
Durable Construction
A bit of ideation...
Concept Generation
Chosen Concept
Iterations
Iteration 1
Fleshed out the key dimensions and basic structure of the product.
Back Plate
The back plate will be screwed into the wall to hoist the rest of the bottle holder.
Metal Rod
The rod will provide support to the bottle and keep it completely stable.
Base Plate
The base plate will provide an area to keep the bottle. It will be folded in order keep the product compact when not in use.
Now, what do we need to figure out?
The rod stopping mechanism
How the product folds and stays folded
Final Concept
Iteration 2
Removed corners and experimented with the rod mechanism.
Iteration 3
Shortened the back plate and to make the product more compact and finalized magnet placement.
Iteration 4
Finalized dimensions and rod stopping mechanism to make it extremely simple.
Iteration 5
Looked through and fixed the radii throughout the product and placed final details.
Metal Rod
Plastic Base encapsulating a magnet
Metal Flange acting a stopper
Back Plate's Magnet
Average diameter of a water bottle - 80cm
20mm
Prototyping
The Final Product
Metal Rod
The metal rod acts as an affordance for opening the bottle opener.
Rod Stopping Mechanism
The rod is stopped at 45 deg angle using a simple metal stopper that holds onto a flange on the back plate. The metal stopper to screwed to the rod.
Closing Mechanism
The backplate's plastic piece hosts a magnet which holds the product in a closed and compact position when not in use.
Aesthetic Details
The base's plate has a plastic covering which holds the base's magnet.
