Project Proposal

Swiss Army Knife - Daniel Mika

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The knife I have has 10 features, including the pick and tweezers on the outside. They all serve a different purpose and all have been conjoined inside a 4-axis cam system that is contained inside stainless steel spacers. There are 5 spacers and one small individual spacer that has been delegated to angle the large knife back into place beside its smaller family member. The cam system is quite interesting, it is designed so that all the parts will open to a locked position and then close using force only to about half way and then snap itself back into place. There are four cams inside and each one uses the force acting on it by whatever is on the other side to close what is on the active.

A more efficient way to describe this system is to break it down individually. Let's start with the bottle opener, the can opener and the razor blade cutter. All three are one specific cam system with the two openers on one side and the blade on the other. When you open the bottle opener you will see the cam on the other side start to move out just slightly. As it continues to move out you will see the cam hit sort of a toggle position, hold for a moment, and then go back into its original space. As well as locking the bottle opener into a stationary position. The bottle opener rotates about axis one which is one of the two main axes, and the can opener rotates about axis two which is the other of the two main axes. The opposing force on the cam is from the force coming down from the razor blade on the other side. The can opener is also affected in the same way and acts in same way as the bottle opener. The razor blade rotates about its own axis, which I have decided to call axis 3.

The force created by all these moving parts is the compressive force that is the force that compresses everything together. The entire system at every axis has been riveted together creating a compressive force that does not allow the parts to move about freely with each other. It is this compressive force that creates the entire system.

The scissors are in the next section between the second and third spacers. This is a more simple system as is the scissors are the only feature in this section. It reacts off of one cam that runs parallel with it and is flat against the other side. This comes out slightly as the scissors are moving out but then snaps back into place when the scissors finally come into there stationary position. The scissors rotate about the same axis as the bottle cap opener, axis one.

The next section is much the same as the last section as is it only has one feature, the nail file, and an opposing cam on the other side. The cam has just a slightly different shape as the one on section two to account for the difference shape of the two features. Also the file rotates about the same axis as the scissors, axis one.

The last of the sections is the section that has three features including a small knife, a large knife, and a wine bottle opener. The large knife and the small knife are on the same side and the wine bottle opener is on the opposite side. This system works a little differently as to the wine bottle opener works on its own, and two knives create each others opposing force using a cam down the center of the system. You can see the opposing knife rise on either side when the other is being lifted into stationary position. The wine bottle opener is on axis three with the razor blade on the other side of the knife. The small knife is on axis one and the large knife is on axis two. It is also important to point out that there has been an extra spacer on axis one that allows for the large knife to slide back into place. The two knifes are not parallel as is the large knife is slightly angled.

The outer shell of the knife is two red plastic covers mounted on both sides of the opposing outer spacers. One is flush around the edges and the other has been cut to allow for the oversized diameter of the wine bottle opener. The two pieces are mounted together using the designs of the rivets as locking devices for both. The two pieces are snapped on.

The two outer shells each have there own feature inside them. The wine bottle opener side has a pick and the other side has a set of tweezers. The two sides have been cut to allow for the two features to just slide in and allow for friction to keep them in place.

Summary:
In all the Swiss army knife has five large spacers and one small spacer. It has ten different features, the bottle cap opener, the can opener, the razor blade, the scissors, the nail file, the large knife, the small knife, the wine bottle opener, the pick and the tweezers. It has two plastic outer shells for covering, and has four separate moving cams inside. In all it is about 4 ½" in length, 1 ½" in height and about 1 1/4" thick. Each cam is about 1/8" thick and each is dimensionally different. Each spacer is 1/16" thick and each has specific features pertaining two the dimensional constrains of the feature that goes in it. Each feature is different but they usually go by the 1/8" because above anything else, they have to fit in between the spacers. The outer coverings are 1/8" thick and are completely filleted to give a more rounded appealing look.


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