Engineering Design Project

For the past two weeks, I've been consumed with completing my design project for school. So here it is, the "Cool Can Cooler" (aka "C-cubed"). It's a little device designed to quickly chill a soda/beer can from room temp to "cold" (roughly 8-10 degrees C). Put a can in a freezer will take about 20 minutes (2 hours in a fridge), and this little device can do it in about 10-15 minutes. Our team presented it to the class on Monday and it was fairly well received. I spent a LOT of time on this sucker, and although I'm quite proud of the job we did, I'm glad it's done and over with.

14 Comments:
how does it work?
Sunday, May 08, 2005 10:32:00 PM
This is really cool! What is the power source? It looks portable--can I stash it in my car and then have a cool drink within 10 minutes? Please mail me the prototype so I can field-test it for you!!!
Monday, May 09, 2005 2:00:00 AM
Yah! That is really neat! What other kinds of projects did the rest of the class come up with?
Monday, May 09, 2005 6:03:00 AM
The basic concept uses what's called a Peltier heat pump, or thermoelectric cell. It's about the size of a saltine cracker. So when you apply a voltage across it, one side gets hot and the other side gets cold. We attached the cold side to a metal "cradle" which holds the soda, and the warm side is attached to a fan to dissipate the heat.
The power source is 12V AC drawing about a 10 amp current. Technically, we can modify it for automotive use since a cigarette lighter is 12V, but we haven't attempted or tested it yet.
The other groups in the class built:
- a device to automatically place a golf ball on a tee
- a small room heater
- a modified ergonomic bicycle
- an air intake for a camaro
Monday, May 09, 2005 8:18:00 AM
Nice, that's a handy little device. Where can I pick one up? :)
Monday, May 09, 2005 11:41:00 AM
intakes take no engineering know how! I was working on intakes back in high school.
Monday, May 09, 2005 7:19:00 PM
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?whse=BC&topnav=&prodid=11001569&ec=BC-EC854-Cat749&pos=0F
Monday, May 09, 2005 11:38:00 PM
as for the intake, they did a little engineering analysis on it, such as airflows and stress analysis. i felt they could have done more, but i'm not the teacher.
yup, there are several products out on the market that do similar things. i wouldn't call it a direct rip-off since ours was an entirely original and independent design. but that costco one looks pretty spiffy.
Tuesday, May 10, 2005 8:06:00 AM
AMG:
As happyoblivion so rudely pointed out, you can pick one up at costco :(
Tuesday, May 10, 2005 8:07:00 AM
whatevers, I don't need that generic kirkland crud. I'm down with a patchoo 2000!
Tuesday, May 10, 2005 2:12:00 PM
Lol Bryan!
I like how your design looks appealing. That's awesome. The other projects don't sound as cool, although the ergonomic bicycle isn't bad. Some guys in industrial design developed this training wheel bike that I read somewhere. That was pretty cool. At higher speeds the back wheel folds together into a single one while at slower speeds, the bike turns into more of a tricycle formation.
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 6:53:00 AM
Hey wait a second...
That costco thing is "easy to set up, just add ice cubes, water, plug in and choose your chill settings."
That's cheating! Add ice cubes and water???
Wednesday, May 11, 2005 8:11:00 AM
That looks soooo cool!!! Maybe you can have a bigger red button on it so I can teach Oreo and Frankie how to cool drinks for me. That'll be the life. Getting some sun in the backyard while the hubby is mowing the lawn and the pups are cooling the drinks.
Thursday, May 12, 2005 11:40:00 AM
Ah, true. I did not see that for the Costco thing. So, yours is the superior chiller. Patent it soon!!!
Saturday, May 14, 2005 3:07:00 AM
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