Design for Manufacturability
Manual Transmission Remoter Shifter Knob Redesign
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Redesign by:
Joseph Basile Winter 2005 |
The manual gear shifter assembly is an excellent design improvement opportunity with a wide range of design specifications, from styling to durability, to vibration absorption, to manufacturing, and assembly. The current design carries close to a decade of adapting, modifications, upgrades and learnings. The project objective needs to satisfy all customer and manufacture needs such as, styling, shift efforts, noise and vibration, assembly methods, manufacturing cost, ergonomics, durability and others. In practical terms, eliminate the top customer complaint, gear shifter rattle and optimize the design to reduce overall piece cost. Improve serviceability by reducing removal and re-assembly time. The final design of the knob assembly consists of four individual parts, compared to the original six parts. The redesigned knob is located onto shaft using a tapered pyramid as a locating guide which the shaft is fitted to transmission in vehicle. The knob is now injection molded out of a polymer with metal inserts to provide the desired vibration isolation while maintaining required mass of knob. Part count is reduced by combining the trim cover and retention system which can then be assembled with an annular snap fit holding the assembly together. This redesign was developed by Joseph Basile, Tony Forgione, Julian Banfield, Damian Gianchino, and Arash Harandian in Winter 2005, instructors: Prof. Sridhar Kota, Mentor Dr. Donald Malen, and Teaching Assistant Audrey Plinta.
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Project Specifications (pdf) |
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Pictorial Summary
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