3 ms·

Some of their current generation plastic fasteners are ingenious and probably the product of substantial mechanical design expertise. Their Dundra table (the Ik

by AlanYx 3y ago

Some of their current generation plastic fasteners are ingenious and probably the product of substantial mechanical design expertise. Their Dundra table (the Ikea "Lego table") is a good example... I thought there was no way that the way the drawers are assembled (plastic fasteners, no hammering) could possibly stand up to abuse by kids without becoming loose, but it legitimately seems to work.

contingencies 3y ago
Yes it would be very interesting to see the design etymology of the injection molded plastic cam-lock parts. Here's a list of them. https://www.furnitureparts.com/collections/ikea-cam-lock-nuts https://www.furnitureparts.com/collections/ikea-cam-lock-nut... I've seen them produced by others but would hazard a guess Ikea was one of the earlier users if not the origin of the design. Here is a discussion of it - https://www.core77.com/posts/27725/Death-to-Cam-Lock-Nuts-Flatpack-Hardware-That-Will-Hopefully-Become-Obsolete https://www.core77.com/posts/27725/Death-to-Cam-Lock-Nuts-Fl... - apparently incorrectly suggesting it will be partly replaced with this system - https://www.core77.com//posts/59321/How-Ikeas-New-Joinery-is-Advancing-Their-Design https://www.core77.com//posts/59321/How-Ikeas-New-Joinery-is... The part of the allegedly proposed evolution which is not obvious to non-production engineers is that the milled voids within the proposed table interior are only possible to achieve with angled CNC work which is not something Ikea has traditionally done as it is historically PITA. You can basically only do it cheaply with custom milling robotics, which is only feasible on production at a certain (not huge but decent) scale. Specifically you probably want to have a fixed angle of approach and the capacity to rotate the mill's work-head by 90 degree increments (as this is faster, more energy efficient, and more spatially efficient than rotating the workpiece itself). Then simply mill the same feature four times. The alternative is rotating the workpiece on a huge rotary table and using a standard mill, but that requires angled mounting and de-mounting of the workpiece which is a PITA requiring equipment (eg. a robotic arm) itself. Production cost, part count and user experience wise this is brilliant design enabled primarily by innovation in fabrication automation. Kudos to Ikea's prototyping team. However, marketing wise a fat, relatively unstable table with zero drawers may be a hard sell and hard to differentiate branding wise from a straight clone. It seems the design made it to market but with some kind of odd-ball manually hex key driven cog-as-screw-proxy system as per the video here: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lisabo-coffee-table-ash-veneer-90297657/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lisabo-coffee-table-ash-veneer-... The primary benefit of that system appears to be stability in disassembly and re-assembly (in some ways this is "furniture for the homeless", a very millennial design proposition). In addition, I'd hazard a guess brand differentiation was another high priority concern in the eventual decision to go to market with this oddball cog system, since AFAIK a factory-mounted thread insert and a countersunk screw would have been easier and probably cheaper, yet rapidly cloned.

by AlanYx 3y ago

contingencies 3y ago

Yes it would be very interesting to see the design etymology of the injection molded plastic cam-lock parts. Here's a list of them. https://www.furnitureparts.com/collections/ikea-cam-lock-nuts https://www.furnitureparts.com/collections/ikea-cam-lock-nut... I've seen them produced by others but would hazard a guess Ikea was one of the earlier users if not the origin of the design. Here is a discussion of it - https://www.core77.com/posts/27725/Death-to-Cam-Lock-Nuts-Flatpack-Hardware-That-Will-Hopefully-Become-Obsolete https://www.core77.com/posts/27725/Death-to-Cam-Lock-Nuts-Fl... - apparently incorrectly suggesting it will be partly replaced with this system - https://www.core77.com//posts/59321/How-Ikeas-New-Joinery-is-Advancing-Their-Design https://www.core77.com//posts/59321/How-Ikeas-New-Joinery-is... The part of the allegedly proposed evolution which is not obvious to non-production engineers is that the milled voids within the proposed table interior are only possible to achieve with angled CNC work which is not something Ikea has traditionally done as it is historically PITA. You can basically only do it cheaply with custom milling robotics, which is only feasible on production at a certain (not huge but decent) scale. Specifically you probably want to have a fixed angle of approach and the capacity to rotate the mill's work-head by 90 degree increments (as this is faster, more energy efficient, and more spatially efficient than rotating the workpiece itself). Then simply mill the same feature four times. The alternative is rotating the workpiece on a huge rotary table and using a standard mill, but that requires angled mounting and de-mounting of the workpiece which is a PITA requiring equipment (eg. a robotic arm) itself. Production cost, part count and user experience wise this is brilliant design enabled primarily by innovation in fabrication automation. Kudos to Ikea's prototyping team. However, marketing wise a fat, relatively unstable table with zero drawers may be a hard sell and hard to differentiate branding wise from a straight clone. It seems the design made it to market but with some kind of odd-ball manually hex key driven cog-as-screw-proxy system as per the video here: https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lisabo-coffee-table-ash-veneer-90297657/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/lisabo-coffee-table-ash-veneer-... The primary benefit of that system appears to be stability in disassembly and re-assembly (in some ways this is "furniture for the homeless", a very millennial design proposition). In addition, I'd hazard a guess brand differentiation was another high priority concern in the eventual decision to go to market with this oddball cog system, since AFAIK a factory-mounted thread insert and a countersunk screw would have been easier and probably cheaper, yet rapidly cloned.