Candy Dispenser
In my Introduction to Product Realization course, the final project was to make a candy dispenser. There were a few design specifications that had to be met for the project which added some additional challenge:
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Can store up to twenty candies
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The "candies" were plastic spheres, about 1mm in diameter​
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Dispense the candies one at a time
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Reset set itself automatically
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Have some form of rotary motion
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Candies must have a designated release spot
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Components had to be 3D printed or laser cut
I started this project by making some initial sketches of potential ideas. I also had to research how I wanted to incorporate a mechanism that used rotary motion. I decided on using a crank and slider, where the user would turn the crank, and the slider would push the candies out of the machine. I worked then to create early rapid prototypes of the the key components of my machine:
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The candy holder, which would need to be able to hold 20 pieces of candy
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The slider, which pushes candy into a hole for dispensing, with a spring attached to it for resetting.
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The crank and slider, which will translate the rotary motion of the crank into the linear motion of the slider.
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Next, I worked to create a basic 3D model of my candy dispenser in CAD. After prototype testing, I decided to make the candy holder more of a funnel shape, and added in the base and candy catcher at the end of the chute as well.
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The next step in the design process was to create a functional prototype, where some of the parts were manufactured and some of the parts were still made from the rapid prototyping materials.
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After this I modeled the entire assembly in CAD so that I could begin 3D printing my components.
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After creating 3D printing all of the components I assembled the candy machine. Then I tested my entire candy machine for its functionality. I also had to create an engineering drawing for one of my components and an exploded BOM. This project was successful as I was able to create a fully functional candy machine that met all of the design specifications.
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