Project Outcomes
Koolboks aims to provide cooling with solar-powered freezers equipped with ice batteries to sustain the temperature of the freezers. However, these ice batteries, make the lid heavy to lift, cause deformation on the lid, and prevent the lid from staying open without adequate support. This project aimed to improve the hinge design of the lid carrying the ice batteries to improve the ergonomics and safety of the freezer.
To address this issue, the fellow employed a human-centered design approach and iterated through five concept designs using surveys, research, and feedback from Koolboks’ users and engineering team to arrive at the required concept. The concept separates the ice batteries from the freezer lid using a modular plastic hinge designed for each ice battery. It takes the ice battery weight off the lid while allowing the ice batteries to perform their function and still be ergonomic and user-friendly.
Detailed designs of the chosen concept were done in Autodesk Fusion 360 and FEA analysis was used to improve the robustness of the design. The hinge was designed for simple and quick assembly without making any major edits to the original freezer form factor. Finally, a prototype of the hinge was 3D printed and tested, giving satisfactory results. The design is now set to be adopted by Koolboks for their future devices.
Ice battery Hinge design Brainstorming (Oluwatobi Oyeshile and Koolboks Project POC – Lukmon Alani)
