Gimballed Cup Holder

PROJECT OVERVIEW

This project was used as an opportunity to expose myself to manufacturing techniques and gain more experience in 3D modeling. It took 30-40 hours of work to complete and was functional.

Project Description

This mechanically gimballed cup holder was completed when I gained access to school 3D printers as a project I thought would both be fun and improve manufacturing and design abilities.

The general concept is a cup holder with 3 degrees of freedom, able to rotate freely forward and back via the mouth directly attached to it. Which allowed rotation side to side via freedom at the connection to the support rod. The support rod lastly was allowed to rotate up and down from the back, with springs inside the "box" to dampen motion.

Aside from the springs, all components were 3D printed from various printers with differing polymers for specific strength requirements. The weight of the full cup was used as the base for the mechanical gimbal mechanism.

Design Choices

If I were to complete this project now there are a lot of things I would do differently. At the time I was very excited to use some of the new printers I had gained access to and decided to make all components (except springs) out of either PLA or ABS, using Prusa, Objet, and Markforged printers.

For durability I would now make specific load bearing components, including pins and rods out of aluminum or another more durable material. The "No Spill" cup holder worked great at first, however over time it parts wore down and it stopped functioning properly.

The hook is designed to attach to specific car vents.

DEMONSTRATIONS

Accelerating

The cup holders reaction to a quick acceleration

Uneven Surface

Video illustrates behavior when driving 20 mph over large potholes

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