WATER BARB
DESIGN
ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
ABOUT
As part of the Eight Sleep flagship POD product, the following barb was designed for water flow and optimized for both user interaction, functionality, and manufacturability.
Final CAD rendition of barb design
The water barb is welded in place between two PVC sheets to prevent fluid leakage. However, the previous rendition of this barb was too tall and the welding horn surface allowed for too much stretch of the PVC material when water was pumped through the barb.
PROBLEM:
Process
Since the previous rendition of this barb was proposed by a manufacturer in China, this edition had to be recreated from bottom up in order to control variability for future design changes. In order to satisfy the same previous design criteria, the previous rendition was used as a base model to define overall dimensions. Research was done on how welding horns were made and varying types of barb to plastic connections to understand the manufacturing parameters.
RESEARCH:
PROPOSED SOLUTION:
To reduce the profile of the barb and maintain the same number of components in the barb, the design was limited to two options; a barb that fed directly out of the PVC sandwich with the neck of the barb straight and parallel with the sheets of PVC or a barb that rose out of the PVC and bent at an 90° angle. Due to manufacturing restrictions, the accepted solution was the latter.
Initial design
sketches
INITIAL MANUFACTURING:
Using Form 3-D printers, prototypes were made for testing to check for fit and function. In addition, mock-ups for potential welding horns were also made to ensure the designed component could be used in the welding horn fixture at manufacturing.
Different 3-D printed revisions during the prototyping phase
MANUFACTURING:
BARB + HORN MOCK-UP
Welding horn operations were simulated and dimensions were proposed to Chinese manufacturers. In addition, the internals of the barb were modified to include draft and cutouts for pin action.
FUTURE
This revision of the barb has been approved in the manufacturing process and will be implemented as a rolling change.