Electric Tea Kettle With Infuser
Showcasing SolidWork skills, while also satisfying my love for tea
My Role
CAD Designer
Team
Solo, Course Project
Timeline
May - Jun 2020
Tools
SolidWorks
iMovie
Figma
Overview
During Spring quarter 2020, I took the course ME 123, Introduction to Visualization and Computer-Aided Design. For the final project, we were able to model any object we desired. I decided to tap into my love for tea.
I love tea because of its immersive experience. It can help induce relaxation or provide you comfort when you are feeling under the weather.
I created a model of an electric kettle with a tea infuser to demonstrate the culmination of everything I learned about parametric, feature-based modeling during this course.
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Prior to this class, I had no prior experience with SolidWorks or the concepts of CAD in general. However, by being very proactive to ensure I was understanding the content, by the end of the course, this final project received an honorary mention.
Creation Process
Using SolidWorks, I put together the kettle as an assembly composed the following.
21
parts
17
unique components
The purpose of this project was not to reinvent electric tea kettles, but rather to demonstrate my ability to create a realistic representation of an object. My goal in this project was to make the kettle look realistic not only in appearance, but also in function, using different configurations to demonstrate all properties. I also included really small details, such as the power symbol on the buttons, the small filter holes on the tea infuser, and the water vent in the bottom of the cup. I included complex components such as the multilayered charging unit on both the platform and bottom of the cup.
Walkthrough Views
Below are short demos displaying different views of the tea kettle, its functions, and features as built in the SolidWorks assembly.
Spanning Kettle Sides
View from front, right, left, top, bottom plane views
2
drawings
I gained experience mentally dissecting an object, determining how all the pieces work together to create one larger entity and how to use mates to then replicate those relationships. I further displayed how the kettle worked by creating an exploded assembly drawing.
1.
exploded assembly drawing
I further displayed how the kettle worked by creating an exploded assembly drawing.
2.
detailed drawing
To demonstrate my knowledge of the best practices for dimensioning, I created a detailed drawing of one of the more complicated assembly parts, the electric platform.
Reflection
This project taught me a lot about myself. Coming into the class, I didn’t know anything about CAD, let alone SolidWorks, and it felt out of my league because I didn’t aspire to be a mechanical engineer. As with everything I do, I gave this project my all, and it came to fruition when I got an honorary mention out of 160+ students.
I ended up learning how to think of mechanisms from the smaller parts at play to the larger picture. This ability to mentally dissect an object and build it back up was a valuable lesson that has informed my own approach to UX Design.
