Longscooter

One of the projects for ME 415 (Engineering Design) was to design a new product that does not currently exist. The project was used to prepare us for the engineering design process and engineering decision making processes that we would encounter during our capstone project. I served as the team lead of a 4 person team. We decided to make a new transportation device combining a longboard and scooter.

Due to the recent growth in the longboard market, with the driving force being the newfound casual, fun nature of longboarding there is a huge potential for a new product, the convertible longboard/scooter. The convertible longboard/scooter will give casual riders the ability to ride their longboard even more places, with more control than ever, while still providing the standard longboard features. Previous longboard-like scooters have made it to market, however, they can not be used as standard longboards as well as scooters; this is where we believe we can win. The convertible longboard/scooter allows the users to cruise around town in longboard configuration, whereas when riding up hills the scooter configuration provides extra stability and control for casual riders. We also believe it will be worth it to make this product as it fills, what we see as a gap, in a still growing market. The risk of this project is acceptable, as the product will enter a ever growing market in longboarding products and with low production costs, due to the low cost of materials and fairly standard design, the risk is even lower.

This new product allows users an alternative transportation device that combines the speed and ride quality of a longboard with the stability and control of a scooter, enhancing the overall riding experience. The stylish new design is portable and easily converts between longboard and scooter allowing you to fold up the handlebars and bring it in to school and/or work with you.

In order to define and capture customer needs, we analyzed our target market of people who want a versatile transportation device as well as longboard and scooter enthusiasts. To begin the process of capturing customer needs we researched what customers who purchase a longboard or scooter are looking for in their product. This gave us a great starting point to capture longboard and scooter customer needs, these needs are clearly stated on the house of quality under “Customer Requirements”. However, having a completely new product, we had to place ourselves in our customers’ shoes to determine what we believe customers would want out of our product.

Requirements:

Weatherproof, must withstand all elements i.e sand, dirt, snow, and rain
Stable and smooth ride quality over rough cement surfaces with comfortable rider position
Competitive price-point to other similar products
Easy to convert, should take less than 1 minute to change configuration
Attractive styling
Compatible with aftermarket components such as bearings and wheels

Constraints:

Must be convertible by a single operator
Must support the weight of riders up to 300lbs
Must last 10 years with regular use
Must be liftable by single operator and carried without significant fatigue

After much deliberation and time spent deciding on a product we could design in order to make the world a better place, we landed on a convertible longboard/scooter, also known as the “Longscooter”. This hybrid mix between a scooter and a longboard is a stylish and fun way to venture around town, commute to work, or just to play around on. To ensure that this product would meet or exceed any requirements that its avid users would desire, we spent long hours brainstorming and drawing up various conceptual designs. Each concept shed new light on different engineering challenges that we would have to overcome. Following a strict concept screening matrix, seen below, we were able to narrow our designs down to the concepts that matched our requirements the closest. The screening matrix, shown below, indicates which concepts warranted further development. The original concept drawings can be seen below. With the concepts narrowed down, we were then able to rethink our overall design, building four new concepts from the best parts of our originals, as shown in the concept scoring matrix below. Following a similar screening method, we narrowed our new concepts to a final design. A preliminary CAD mock-up of the design was created, however, further FEA analysis, part sourcing, and economic analysis would be needed to actually bring the product to market.