I designed this spring-loaded coaster dispenser as a response to an ad campaign run by Heineken. The advertisement is all about pouring the perfect beer, and follows steps from cooling the glass to the correct temperature through to placing it on a coaster, turning the glass for the label to face the customer. I started thinking about how I could add to this ‘perfect’ experience by designing a coaster dispenser using a 3D printed adaption of a BB gun mechanism to ‘shoot’ the coaster out.
First I went and bought a cheap, spring-powered BB gun and dismantled it to experiment with the mechanism. I drew a series of sketches and diagrams based on this and proceeded to design a simple concept for how I wanted the device to look. At this stage I hadn't given much thought to how my mechanism would work exactly but I knew I wanted to utilise 3D printing to be able to rapidly prototype a number of iterations.
Above are my initial solid works models, focusing entirely on form and material qualities. Next I had to design a mechanism that would allow the device to operate.
The white pieces above were 3D printed in ABS on an UP! 3D printer. They were test pieces to examine the strength of the plastic and accuracy of the printer and enable me to gain a better understanding of the material properties for my mechanism design.
Here are my stage II concepts, modelled in Solidworks and rendered using Manta Ray in a variety of plastic finishes. As you can see I included initial mechanism concepts in these models based on the information I was able to gather from my BB gun experiments. The mechanism pictured in these renders is in fact very similar to my final prototype.
Further testing and development. The variety of print colours doesn't affect the mechanism operation and since this is only a prototype device I wasn't bothered with the look at this stage. They also serve to illustrate the separate components nicely.
I built a casing made from a combination of laser cut acrylic sheet and more 3D printed parts. I sourced aluminium rod from a hobby shop and springs from a local hardware store. The final prototype works perfectly and is able to shoot a cardboard or plastic drinks coaster up to 30cm across a smooth surface.
To operate:
-The user pulls back on the side lever (white)
-The slide mechanism (blue) slides back under spring tension
-A coaster in the dispensing unit (white) drops down into place ready to be launched
-The slide catch (blue) locks into place on the rod as part of the release mechanism (red)
-The user presses down on the top button (white) to depress the release mechanism (red)
-The slide mechanism (blue) shoots forward and knocks the coaster waiting to be launched
-The coaster shoots out of the device and the mechanism resets.
If you like this project, please hit the 'appreciate' button, leave me a comment and don't hesitate to check out my other work on Behance! Your feedback is warmly welcomed!
