ARC8016, Individual Project, Swim Pool, or So
Start:
The stapler in the second row used to be broken. It is called Lyreco and can be regarded as a brand (formally it may stand for an office products distributor, see http://www.lyreco.com/webshop/P04/welcome;jsessionid=0000WswWQ01bjOnoT36jI_FrNyH:16q10milh?lc=HKHK). It uses 24/6 and 26/6 types of staples. The main problem was that the spring fell (or missed).
Problem solving process (method: incremental development borrowed from programming, ARC8016 Grasshopper tutorial session 1):
1. Find a brand that has the similar size, follows similar physical structure and stapling principle, and uses the same staple types: Advantia, 24/6 and 26/6 (see the first row above and http://www.advantia.co.uk/ for more information about the products); Observe it and imagine how the Lyreco should be like once fixed.
2. Dismantle the problem into three steps:
(1) Fix the ring on one end of the spring onto the hook of the metal plate (see column three). Though the hooks face towards different directions respectively in these two brands, it doesn’t add difficulty in hooking it for Lyreco.
(2) Notice that the spring in Advantia circles around that short white pillar and goes out through the hole on the left (Row 1, Column 4), then it was at first imagined that Lyreco could follow the same route. However, it was tried and found that once the spring went in to that rectangular hole (Row 2, Column 4), it couldn’t be grasped and stretched out of the left rectangular hole. Fingers didn’t work, neither did gravity. Then a clip was used to make it out.
(3) Fix the ring on the other end of the spring onto the hook of the long rectangular white plate (maybe it’s called carriage). Though part of the spring has suffered plastic deformation, meaning that it couldn’t be as tight as the original (Column 5 for comparison), it doesn’t affect its work at all.
Extension:
1. (1) Diving boards are mainly used for competitions or formal trainings. They lack entertainment element when the clients of the swim pool are children. Therefore a mushroom like board with springs underneath/within its stem is to create for fun, uniform, and aesthetics if the theme of the swim pool is mushroom world.
(2) Be cautious to decide the spring’s material: Being rustproofed because it is near the water body; Bear children’s weight and resist plastic deformation.
2. (1) The old or the broken can be useful, in one condition that the problem is accurately defined and the solution is organized in clear steps.
