Concept Development of Furniture Damper
(2009) MMK920Innovation
- Abstract
- This is the report of a master thesis in Mechanical engineering with industrial design at Lund University Faculty of Engineering, in collaboration with Ikea Components AB
(ICOMP) in Älmhult.
Furniture dampers are a desired feature by most customers and are practically a standard
in kitchen drawers and cabinet fronts. IKEA’s vision is that this feature will spread to
involve the entire household in the future.
IKEA uses a large number of different dampers which are all supplied by external
manufacturers. IKEA wants to decrease the number of dampers in their range by
standardizing and manufacturing dampers themselves. Two ideas for new damper concepts are proposed by design engineers at ICOMP and one more proposal is... (More) - This is the report of a master thesis in Mechanical engineering with industrial design at Lund University Faculty of Engineering, in collaboration with Ikea Components AB
(ICOMP) in Älmhult.
Furniture dampers are a desired feature by most customers and are practically a standard
in kitchen drawers and cabinet fronts. IKEA’s vision is that this feature will spread to
involve the entire household in the future.
IKEA uses a large number of different dampers which are all supplied by external
manufacturers. IKEA wants to decrease the number of dampers in their range by
standardizing and manufacturing dampers themselves. Two ideas for new damper concepts are proposed by design engineers at ICOMP and one more proposal is developed during the project. The goal of the project is to develop, design and evaluate
the three proposals in order to decide which one has the most potential for future
production.
The methodology of the first part of the project involves research to gain more
knowledge, a problem clarification process to find the main objectives and a function
analysis to establish all functions of a damper. After this a concept generation and
evaluation phase is performed to find the most suitable concept proposal. Once the three
concepts are defined an embodiment phase starts, which includes setting requirements
and designing and manufacturing prototypes which are tested and evaluated.
The basic principle of the helix damper is to obtain fluid friction with a pump that forces oil through narrow channels. No working prototype has been successfully manufactured which means no conclusions on the performance can be made.
The basic principle of the spinning damper is to obtain fluid friction as a cylinder rotates inside a bigger one with a small gap of high viscosity oil between them. It reduces the speed of a moving furniture part in a satisfying way and it has the potential of suiting most of the applications in the IKEA range.
The basic principle of the rotational damper is to obtain fluid friction as a paddle rotates around an axle in an oil filled chamber, forcing the oil to pass around it. It reduces the speed of a moving furniture part in a satisfying way and it has the potential of suiting all of the applications in the IKEA range.
It is concluded that two of the damper concepts are proved to have definite potential.
However, it is not possible to settle on one damper concept to recommend for further
development at this stage. More information must be gathered through prototyping so
that a well founded decision can be made. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1496274
- author
- Lennstam, Karin and Rykfors, Helen
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MMK920
- year
- 2009
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- damper, design, furniture, IKEA, product development, prototype
- language
- English
- id
- 1496274
- date added to LUP
- 2009-10-27 08:57:07
- date last changed
- 2010-02-01 14:40:04
@misc{1496274,
abstract = {{This is the report of a master thesis in Mechanical engineering with industrial design at Lund University Faculty of Engineering, in collaboration with Ikea Components AB
(ICOMP) in Älmhult.
Furniture dampers are a desired feature by most customers and are practically a standard
in kitchen drawers and cabinet fronts. IKEA’s vision is that this feature will spread to
involve the entire household in the future.
IKEA uses a large number of different dampers which are all supplied by external
manufacturers. IKEA wants to decrease the number of dampers in their range by
standardizing and manufacturing dampers themselves. Two ideas for new damper concepts are proposed by design engineers at ICOMP and one more proposal is developed during the project. The goal of the project is to develop, design and evaluate
the three proposals in order to decide which one has the most potential for future
production.
The methodology of the first part of the project involves research to gain more
knowledge, a problem clarification process to find the main objectives and a function
analysis to establish all functions of a damper. After this a concept generation and
evaluation phase is performed to find the most suitable concept proposal. Once the three
concepts are defined an embodiment phase starts, which includes setting requirements
and designing and manufacturing prototypes which are tested and evaluated.
The basic principle of the helix damper is to obtain fluid friction with a pump that forces oil through narrow channels. No working prototype has been successfully manufactured which means no conclusions on the performance can be made.
The basic principle of the spinning damper is to obtain fluid friction as a cylinder rotates inside a bigger one with a small gap of high viscosity oil between them. It reduces the speed of a moving furniture part in a satisfying way and it has the potential of suiting most of the applications in the IKEA range.
The basic principle of the rotational damper is to obtain fluid friction as a paddle rotates around an axle in an oil filled chamber, forcing the oil to pass around it. It reduces the speed of a moving furniture part in a satisfying way and it has the potential of suiting all of the applications in the IKEA range.
It is concluded that two of the damper concepts are proved to have definite potential.
However, it is not possible to settle on one damper concept to recommend for further
development at this stage. More information must be gathered through prototyping so
that a well founded decision can be made.}},
author = {{Lennstam, Karin and Rykfors, Helen}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{Concept Development of Furniture Damper}},
year = {{2009}},
}