LEAF RAKES

PRODUCT LINE

 

Mandate

Development of a leaf rake product line.

Description

PRECICAD’s mandate was to design and develop a line of leaf rakes in two phases. The first series of rakes combines plastic and steel, while the second is entirely made of plastic. The particularity of these rakes is that the teeth apply the same pressure to the ground, regardless of the scraping position adopted by the user. PRECICAD’s involvement in this mandate was the design, technical development, modeling of plastic parts, numerical simulation and the optimization of its weight and flexibility, while ensuring a simple mold release.

Sector

Consumer goods

Departments

  • Industrial Design
  • Numerical Simulation
Multi-purpose line with steel teeth

The main innovation of the multi-purpose leaf rake is its ingenious integration of steel teeth made from sheet metal. Paired with a very flexible plastic body, this allows improved scraping efficiency on the ground. The client had already developed an initial concept of teeth and clips, so the mandate was the development of the upper part as well as the integration of the teeth into the model.

 

Particular attention was paid to the plastic deformation after demolding, so that the piece remains flat (by adding walls and ribs on the front side) and the demolding of the “socket” area, without the use of movable inserts in the mold (less expensive).

 

Finally, the part was designed so that the entire product line could be produced out of the same mold, using interchangeable sections.

Poly / wood line

Following the success of the previous line of leaf rakes, a second all-plastic series was mandated.

 

Flexibility, durability and great maneuverability were once again the main focus.

 

The concept was then developed and improved in terms of strength, weight and ease of demolding.

Finite element analysis

Along with the modeling, a finite element analysis was done by our engineering department.

 

The goal was to evaluate the structural integrity of the rake to determine displacements and constraints, in order to have an overall idea of the behavior and potentially improve the durability of the product.

 

The resulting recommendations were incorporated into the model, improving the final product.

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