Upon successful printing after our first design modifications, we analyzed the bottle opener and new concerns and ideas arose. The bottle opener had been printed to restrict hinge movement past 90 degrees (see Figure 1 below).
Figure 1. Bottle opener hinge movement restricted to 90 degrees.
The wedge where contact with the bottle cap was to be made had also been modified to better fit the curvature of the bottle cap in an effort to provide more points of contact with the cap, and therefore less stress on the wedge component of the opener, as seen in Figure 2 below.
Figure 2. Wedge was modified to match curvature of bottle cap.
Upon inspection, the modified wedge still seemed susceptible to failure through fracture. An alternative opening configuration that calls for positioning the length of the wedge along the neck of the bottle, rather than only the thin lip of the wedge underneath the cap, was thought to provide more support to the bottle opener wedge and more durability to the wedge as a whole and will be implemented in the next print. As is printed, the latching mechanism still protrudes from the body of the opener, and in order to make the latch flush, the design for the next print will be modified to step down the plate thickness where the latch contacts the plate so that the top of the latch does not protrude higher than the plate. This latch can be seen on the end of the left plate of the bottle opener below in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Latch at end of left plate protrudes past right plate thickness when closed.
Model Pics
