What is it? The Umbrella Dryer is a device that dries your wet umbrella in a matter of seconds. The device can be installed in any office and residential buildings. The design was inspired by the air stream drying technology. The new U-Dry umbrella dryer blows air on your umbrella and dries it as one-two-three!
Why is it needed? There are plenty of reasons for choosing this exact project for our final semester project - the concerns include:
- water dripping on the floor from the umbrella can create a risky environment - cause people to fall on the ground and fracture their bones
- the hassle of carrying the dripping umbrella around which causes wet desks, chairs, even drip on the electronic devices
- saves time (instead of letting the umbrella just dry on its own, which takes long time)
How does it work? The blowers act as a driving force - as air stream blows on the umbrella under 60 degree angle causing the droplets of water to move downwards, as well as evaporate some of the water through the convection. The water then gets collected into the plastic container right at the bottom, which then can be easily taken out (by removing the water collection compartment at the bottom) by the janitor/responsible person and then discarded.
Process: - We first started the brainstorming process, then sketch modeling/prototyping the product from the cardboard, rubber and fiberglass insulation. The photo below shows our initial stage prototype of the umbrella dryer.
Follow this link to our 'professional' video about our umbrella dryer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OII12RkfczA&feature=plcp
- The project was analyzed from different perspectives:
Here is the photo of our final product:
The inside views of the pipe outlets:
What is to be done in the future? Just like any engineering product there is always an iteration process before an engineer reaches the final perfect output (but even then there is always a room for improvement), therefore after discussion and careful engineering analysis we have come up with the following possible improvements we would LOVE to make in the future (given couple thousands dollars of course):
- decrease the size of the umbrella dryer to approximately the size of a trashcan
- increase the sweep area of the airflow
- customary blowers designed specifically for our application
- more applications for the noise cancellation
Why is it needed? There are plenty of reasons for choosing this exact project for our final semester project - the concerns include:
- water dripping on the floor from the umbrella can create a risky environment - cause people to fall on the ground and fracture their bones
- the hassle of carrying the dripping umbrella around which causes wet desks, chairs, even drip on the electronic devices
- saves time (instead of letting the umbrella just dry on its own, which takes long time)
How does it work? The blowers act as a driving force - as air stream blows on the umbrella under 60 degree angle causing the droplets of water to move downwards, as well as evaporate some of the water through the convection. The water then gets collected into the plastic container right at the bottom, which then can be easily taken out (by removing the water collection compartment at the bottom) by the janitor/responsible person and then discarded.
Process: - We first started the brainstorming process, then sketch modeling/prototyping the product from the cardboard, rubber and fiberglass insulation. The photo below shows our initial stage prototype of the umbrella dryer.
Follow this link to our 'professional' video about our umbrella dryer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OII12RkfczA&feature=plcp
- The project was analyzed from different perspectives:
- Fulfilled the concept requirements: time to dry = 7 seconds and power = no more than what the grid can supply.
- Aesthetically pleasing
- Within the given budget limits
Here is the photo of our final product:
The inside views of the pipe outlets:
What is to be done in the future? Just like any engineering product there is always an iteration process before an engineer reaches the final perfect output (but even then there is always a room for improvement), therefore after discussion and careful engineering analysis we have come up with the following possible improvements we would LOVE to make in the future (given couple thousands dollars of course):
- decrease the size of the umbrella dryer to approximately the size of a trashcan
- increase the sweep area of the airflow
- customary blowers designed specifically for our application
- more applications for the noise cancellation
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