Demo Cart Project

Project Scope

Design and build a rolling cart with kitchen-like capabilities for the Copper culinary team to take to demos.

Prototyping Process

1) Electrical & Plumbing Design

I started by first mapping out how the electrical and plumbing system would function on this rolling cart. By making this diagram, I could make sure to order each necessary part in order to build.

2) Box Models

To get a sense of how much volume each piece would take up, I created some simple box models of the components and mated them together so that I could conceptualize how big the cart needed to be. Meanwhile, there was a contraint of making sure it fit onto the loading ramp of the transportation van.

3) Sliding Fridge Rack

I had some fun exploring a sliding rack mechanism where the fridge would sit on a platform and extend the workable surface of the cart, but could be collapsed for transportation.

4) Testing Subsystems

I was able to test the plumbing and electrical to see if water could be pumped all the way from the fresh water tank. through the faucet, and into a grey water tank.

5) Final Cart

Although this project was sidetracked several times due to more important projects taking priority while I was an intern, I made some good progress and learned an extensive amount about making independent plumbing and electrical systems. As someone who wishes to one day build out a van and do all of the woodworking, plumbing, electrical and mechanical work myself, this was an exciting project to start learning how to build an RV-style set up.

Exploded View

Here is an exploded view of the cart after cutting the table top in order to expose the components. You can see how snug the components must be in order to fit on the cart and for the cart to fit onto the lift gate of the transportation van.

Takeaways

What I did:	What I learned:
-Box CAD model assembly of components -Created sliding rack system for fridge -Plumbing and electrical diagram -Subsystem functionality test	-Plumbing system for small scale RV style set up -How a delivery pump and accumulator work -How to shift energy and attention to higher priority projects