So I’m sitting here on a Saturday morning waiting for customers to come into the store and as usual I am looking for ways to amuse myself while I wait. I know that a lot of other adults might find a toy store tedious or have difficulty keeping busy when it is slow, but I somehow always manage to find something that keeps my mind stimulated. Perhaps no other adult in central Illinois takes toys and children’s play quite as seriously as I do (a bold statement on my part as I hope other adults recognize the importance of play) and today is no different. As I’m walking through the store I decide to pick up one of our many windup toys. This one is called “Moony” by California Creations and is a wind-up space shuttle. The choice of using Moony for this article is in recognition of the final launch of our space shuttle yesterday (loud chants of USA, USA, USA).
Now the wind-up toys get wound up and played with in the store every day by both adults and kids and I have often wondered if they realize just how much engineering goes into making a windup toy. So today I decided to take Moony apart just so that I can show you what all is involved and since I am a very big advocate of using toys to help people learn, I am hoping that you will gain some knowledge and a greater appreciation for how much work actually goes into providing us with amusing toys.
Now for those of you that know me, you already know that I was once a manufacturing engineer before owning a toy store so I will try to keep it fairly simple and interesting and not go real in depth with all of the mechanics involved. When I was growing up I spent a lot of time taking things apart and trying to figure out how they worked. With the advent of video games and other technological gadgetry that kids have available to them today, mechanics doesn’t quite seem to hold their attention as much and I of course am hoping to change that a little bit at a time.
Moony is put together using over 20 parts. I couldn’t get an exact count because the wind up housing is sealed and I couldn’t gain
access unless I wanted to break the housing. The parts list consists of the top space shuttle body, lower space shuttle body, 2 space shuttle doors, interior space bay floor, rear thrust engine body, springs, space bay door lever that is attached to a cam follower, rack and pinion gear, directional lever, astronaut attached to a gear and camshaft, another cam that is attached to the windup box housing, wheels, and winding shaft. Have I lost all of you non-mechanical people yet? I can’t tell what all is inside the windup box housing but most likely it includes a couple of gears, springs and mounting shafts as well as the housing pieces. Oh yeah, I almost forgot 2 small screws to hold it all together. Are you starting to have a greater appreciation for these $5 toys yet?
Now how do all those parts go together to make this toy work? That’s what I imagine you are asking me right now as your sitting there hanging on every one of my words waiting to find out what wealth of knowledge that I am about to bestow upon you. Well everything working on this toy revolves around two key parts, the winding shaft and cam. Attached to the winding shaft are a drive gear, spring and cam. When the shaft is wound it increases tension in the spring (conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy for those of you that like physics). That tension is what then causes the shaft to rotate, driving both the drive gear and the cam. The drive gear pushes the gear attached to the wheels causing the wheels to move. The cam actually is doing the most work in this windup. The rotational movement of the cam is responsible for the movement of 4 other working features on this toy. First its rotation alternately pushes down on the directional lever to allow the windup toy to spin around. Next the rotational motion is transferred into linear motion (straight line that is) that moves back and forth and causes the astronaut to spin and move up and down as it follows the cam shaft along the rack and pinion gear. Lastly the cam also triggers the space bay door lever which is responsible for the opening and closing of the shuttle bay doors. WOW, that is an awful lot of “work” being done by a simple 1” long x 1/16” diameter winding shaft and cam.
Watch this video to see how all the parts go together.
Now the wind-up toys get wound up and played with in the store every day by both adults and kids and I have often wondered if they realize just how much engineering goes into making a windup toy. So today I decided to take Moony apart just so that I can show you what all is involved and since I am a very big advocate of using toys to help people learn, I am hoping that you will gain some knowledge and a greater appreciation for how much work actually goes into providing us with amusing toys.
Now for those of you that know me, you already know that I was once a manufacturing engineer before owning a toy store so I will try to keep it fairly simple and interesting and not go real in depth with all of the mechanics involved. When I was growing up I spent a lot of time taking things apart and trying to figure out how they worked. With the advent of video games and other technological gadgetry that kids have available to them today, mechanics doesn’t quite seem to hold their attention as much and I of course am hoping to change that a little bit at a time.
Moony is put together using over 20 parts. I couldn’t get an exact count because the wind up housing is sealed and I couldn’t gain
access unless I wanted to break the housing. The parts list consists of the top space shuttle body, lower space shuttle body, 2 space shuttle doors, interior space bay floor, rear thrust engine body, springs, space bay door lever that is attached to a cam follower, rack and pinion gear, directional lever, astronaut attached to a gear and camshaft, another cam that is attached to the windup box housing, wheels, and winding shaft. Have I lost all of you non-mechanical people yet? I can’t tell what all is inside the windup box housing but most likely it includes a couple of gears, springs and mounting shafts as well as the housing pieces. Oh yeah, I almost forgot 2 small screws to hold it all together. Are you starting to have a greater appreciation for these $5 toys yet?Now how do all those parts go together to make this toy work? That’s what I imagine you are asking me right now as your sitting there hanging on every one of my words waiting to find out what wealth of knowledge that I am about to bestow upon you. Well everything working on this toy revolves around two key parts, the winding shaft and cam. Attached to the winding shaft are a drive gear, spring and cam. When the shaft is wound it increases tension in the spring (conversion of potential energy into kinetic energy for those of you that like physics). That tension is what then causes the shaft to rotate, driving both the drive gear and the cam. The drive gear pushes the gear attached to the wheels causing the wheels to move. The cam actually is doing the most work in this windup. The rotational movement of the cam is responsible for the movement of 4 other working features on this toy. First its rotation alternately pushes down on the directional lever to allow the windup toy to spin around. Next the rotational motion is transferred into linear motion (straight line that is) that moves back and forth and causes the astronaut to spin and move up and down as it follows the cam shaft along the rack and pinion gear. Lastly the cam also triggers the space bay door lever which is responsible for the opening and closing of the shuttle bay doors. WOW, that is an awful lot of “work” being done by a simple 1” long x 1/16” diameter winding shaft and cam.
Watch this video to see how all the parts go together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR73rDLROLg
So now tell me, did you ever realize that wind-up toys were that involved? I bet you never thought about how much went into making all those wind-up toys. I’ll bet that you never realized that you could learn a little bit about physics or mechanics by playing with a wind-up toy either? Well I hope that the next time you are in a toy store, you might just have a little more respect and admiration for those simple toys known as windups.
So now tell me, did you ever realize that wind-up toys were that involved? I bet you never thought about how much went into making all those wind-up toys. I’ll bet that you never realized that you could learn a little bit about physics or mechanics by playing with a wind-up toy either? Well I hope that the next time you are in a toy store, you might just have a little more respect and admiration for those simple toys known as windups.
To see more working wind-up toys watch the following video
No comments:
Post a Comment