Review of the Cordless Drill - Coursework Example

CORDLESS DRILL Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: City: Date Table of Contents Introduction 3 Documentation and Interpretation of Interview/Surveys 4 Statement of Requirements 5 Review of the Cordless Drill 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction Cordless drill use is varied and depends on an individual’s project, for instance, commercial projects and private projects (Michael, 2013). Power in cordless drill is measured in battery voltage. Examples of cordless drill include Makita XPH012, Dewalt DC970K-2, Bosch DDS181-02, combination drill and hammer drill (Michael, 2013). The design of a cordless drill affects its performance. According to Marshall (2008), design could be defined as the realization of a concept or idea into a configuration drawing, model plan or specification, which helps achieve the designated objectives. Those objectives begin with the needs of the customers. Some of the customer needs include comfort, battery life, durability and portability. According to Michael (2013), to activate the drill one depresses the trigger that is located in front of the drill’s handle. This then makes chuck to spin at a speed proportional to the depression degree. Drill Image Documentation and Interpretation of Interview/Surveys Purchasing and ease of use From our survey results, we can see several correlations. When ask what they found important to consider when buying a new drill 81.25% of the people said they look for the best quality while the rest said they base their decision off of the price of the product. We see similar numbers when when asked if they recommended the product and if they find it hard to use with 75% saying they will recommend the product and again 81.25% finding the product simple to use. Overall, the product performed as required with a score of 4.4 out of 5. Work related 37.5% of the people surveyed use a cordless drill for professional work and 83.3% of them opted for quality over price when buying a new drill. Only marginally higher than the whole sample group but the nature of their work may not require the use the cordless drill often. None of these people found the drill complicated to use and deemed it safe. Maintenance When comparing how people maintain their drills to other metrics like “what they look for when buying a drill” or “personal or professional” we got a lot of mixed responses. There seems to be no connection about how well a person maintains their drill to the quality, usage, convenience or any other metric we measured. Convenience When asked to consider the convenience of the portability of a cordless drill considering the finite charge of a battery and having to recharge it 87.5% of the people surveyed found that not being constrained by a cord and having the drill portable outweighed the negatives of the battery problem. Comfort Out of a rank out of 5 the average comfort for work related people was 4.8 while people who said they use the product for personal use only ranked it a 3.4. This can be interpreted as either how comfortable the person is using the product or how ergonomically comfortable the product is as we were not clear in the question. Statement of Requirements Goal The goal of this study is to assess the design of a cordless drill, customers’ expectations of the drill, and assessment of whether the product design satisfies customer requirements. Objectives The objectives this study intends to achieve include: To determine whether the current cordless drill design enhances user’s convenience To assess whether it is easy to maintain a cordless drill To assess the purpose of cordless drill among its users To assess whether the cordless drill design enhances user’s efficiency To determine factors considered before buying a cordless drill To assess whether the design of the cordless drill enhances safety during its use Constraints Australian Standards One cannot design a product without taking into consideration the Australian standard (Homeskills, 2013). Battery life/recharge To operate a drill one must charge the battery first. This might take even 2 hours for it to be fully charged. It therefore, proves challenging to keep on recharging the device battery when it becomes empty (Homeskills, 2013). It inconveniences the user since one has stop doing its project just to recharge the battery. Safety The users of the cordless drill need to feel safe while using it. Therefore, designers should design it in a way that enhances safety during its use especially in unusual places (Michael, 2013). Reliability The drill should function well in order to allow its user to complete its duties within a short period of time and with application of minimal force (Marshall, 2008). Overall convenience The drill should be reliable and durable to enable the user to use it continually and for a long period without experiencing any failure or causing any harm to its user (Michael, 2013). The labels and markings on the drill should be very visible and easy to understand in order to enable even an inexperienced user to handle and operate it (Marshall, 2008). Cordless drill must be portable, provide enough power and be lightweight in order to enable its users perform various tasks in places where pneumatic or corded drills are ineffective Handle Strength Even though the design has a descent handle, cordless drill requires a strong handle. A strong handle allows the user to control and maintain alignment during the use of cordless drill (Michael, 2013). Strength to operate the drill Operating a drill requires one to have enough strength (Fox, 1996). One needs to use more power to push forward the drill. It can prove challenging to an individual to put the bit into the chuck. According to Michael (2013), screws can also strip during the operation of cordless drill Lighting According to Fraser (2005), one cannot easily operate a cordless drill in a place with poor lighting. In addition, an individual with poor eyesight cannot comfortably operate a cordless drill (Fraser, 2005). Review of the Cordless Drill Users of the cordless drill require the product to have a battery with a long useful life and one that can take a short period to be recharged (Marshall, 2008). This is because it inconveniences the user anytime he stops to recharge the battery. To enable continuous use and a use over a long period of time the cordless drill battery should be lightweight, ergonomic, and to produce low noise/vibration so as not to make the user uncomfortable (Michael, 2013). The use of the drill should not cause discomforts like arm soreness, joint swelling and blistering. Cordless drill users require maximum power, ability to operate the drill in a squeezed space or obstructed areas, relative and easy intuitive use (Fraser, 2005). According to Frase (2005), the drill should function well in order to allow its user to complete its duties within a short period of time and with application of minimal force. Cordless drill design requires its users to feel more advantaged when using the drill as compared to any other hand tool (Michael, 2013). The drill should be very powerful in order to be able to generate a good quantity of torque easily and quickly. The drill should be reliable and durable to enable the user to use it continually and for a long period without experiencing any failure or causing any harm to its user (Marshall, 2008). According to Marshall (2008), the labels and markings on the drill should be very visible and easy to understand in order to enable even an inexperienced user to handle and operate it. Cordless drill must be portable, provide enough power and be lightweight in order to enable its users perform various tasks in places where pneumatic or corded drills are ineffective (Michael, 2013). Conclusion The information on the use of cordless drill was collected from those who use these tools frequently. The research further involved observation of those operating drill in order to assess how they operate it. We also did our own analysis through research on secondary materials to determine safety requirements. From our research, we were able to determine that most users of the cordless drill use small cordless drill to perform small projects. These projects are mainly for non-commercial purposes. However, some individuals use cordless drills for commercial purpose. We were able to determine that design of a cordless drill based on its functions need to focus around quality, user convenience, reliability, safety, portability and its battery life. We also identified various problems that could arise from the use of the cordless drill, for instance the problems may arise from battery, case, chuck and clutch. The main problem identified was with the battery since its power seems to be very low. Therefore, designers should come up with a high quality battery. References Michael B., &, Jeffrey C. (2013), Industrial Maintenance Pg. 44 Homeskills (2013). An introduction to sawing, drilling, shaping & joining wood Marshall, C. (2008). The complete guide to carpentry for homeowners: basic carpentry skills & everyday home repairs. Chanhassen, Minn, Creative Pub. International. Fraser, A. O. (2005). Your first workshop: A practical guide to what you really need. Newton, CT: Taunton Press. Fox, B. A. (1996). Studies in anaphora. Amsterdam [u.a.], Benjamins. Read More