From DDL Wiki

Executive Summary

Toasters are commonly used kitchen appliances, and are typically not too expensive to purchase. They can be found at most department stores from anywhere between 6$ to 50$. They are small and compact, and are used to toast or heat slices of bread, and other bread-like foods. There are 3 kinds of toasters; pop-up, toaster oven, and toaster conveyer. For this design project, we will focus on the pop-up toaster.

The following study involves analysis of a $10.00 Chefmate toaster which was purchased from Target. In the course of this semester, we may analyze a more expensive toaster to compare what extra features are included for the price. Our hope is to find an innovative way to change current toaster designs, to address some common problems which users complain about most frequently.

Our analysis involves studying how the toaster is usually operated and how it works, combined with evaluating the toaster through Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA), Failure Mode Evaluation and Analysis (FMEA), Design for the Environment (DFE), and a quantitative mechanical analysis.

Our first steps were to disassemble the toaster, to figure out what parts and components were involved in its operation. We were also able to understand the basics about how each of the parts of the toaster functioned. We categorized all the parts and assemblies, which can be seen in the assembly parts list.

After disassembly, we concluded that there were far too many parts in a toaster. We believe that this makes assembly extremely tedious, and increases the complexity of the product.

Product

Our product to dissect and analyze was a toaster. For this part of the project, we purchased a $9.99 Chefmate toaster to dissect. We also purchased a $29.99 Hamilton Beach toaster that we hope to compare with our first toaster at a later date.