The reverse ergonomics and engineering process of a toothbrush handle

Abstract

Consulta en la Biblioteca ETSI Industriales (7710)

[EN] This research presents an analytical and experimental study on the ergonomic aspects of toothbrush handle design. The study that has been done for this Master Thesis is trying to solve a common problem as it is the design of hand-held devices in a scientific way for but focused mainly in practical applications. We describe here the entire design process of a toothbrush handle, taking into account the ergonomic aspects and trying to be suitable for a large range of users, using the concept of Mass Customization. Many problems appeared while the development of this process and were solved during the project, hence we were able to set a standard procedure for analyzing data based on the concept of Reverse Engineering using tools as a 3D scanner can be, and using specific software afterwards. It has been very useful to achieve the results learning many skills in the way, as scanning, converting scanned data into solids, create procedures for measuring with SolidWorks, and analyzing and calculating data with Excel. The main conclusion that might be taken is that it is possible to follow the process completely with good results but it has to be tested in detail with more experiments and analysis, and of course it can be improved when finding new procedures and faster ways to do things that have been done during the project, making it more automatic, as a drawback of this process is that it has to be done by specialized personal and it takes some time.