Original Concept - Material: Brushed Aluminum
I hate heavy, bulky keychains, stacked to the limit with keys and tags and what have you that creates a very uncomfortable lump in your pocket. What I hate just as much are those cheap plastic bottle openers everyone has on their keychain. With a little extra time on my hands I decided to design a new concept for myself.
Made of aluminum for its rigidity and minimized weight, it eliminates the need for lanyards that get dirty, and cheap plastic bottle openers that take up precious pocket space and break more often than they work. A built in "clip" allows the fob to either be looped around a belt loop or on the top of your pocket. Never again will you need to dig into your pocket to get your keys. Also built in is a handy and very sturdy bottle opener guaranteed not to break in your hands when trying to open your "soda".
In order to determine a good and comfortable size, creating a 3D model will give me the ability to test out it's proportions before spending any money on costly materials.
This clip is probably one of my more useful creations so far, and pending the success of the printed model and some testing it will become the new home for my keys.
3D Printed test model. Note that bottle opener broke upon first test,due to weak geometry and weakness of material. Also note the non-concentric lines of the pant clip and the recess on main body.
The 3D model provided really valuable insight into the performance of the keychain. It identified some places where I could refine the model. The first and most obvious to me was the bottle opener. It may have been due to the 3D material being weaker than say aluminum, but the bottle opener did not function at all. It tended to bend and eventually snap. Making the geometry a bit thicker towards the end of the opener would prevent this, also the possibility of making the whole piece a bit thicker would help destribute the force as well.
Another part that will require some adjustment is the edge of the prong. The only reason is that the geometry of the end of the prong and the indentation in the body do not perfectly match up. While this does not affect the functionality of the piece at all, my OCD prevents me from leaving it alone.
One aspect that I was worried about was the space between the prong and the rest of keychain and it being able to clip onto my pants. However it fits very nicely, both when clipped on the top of my pocket and on a belt loop. I do not hook it to my belt loop only because I am worried the 3D material will fail and I will lose my keys, usb drive, etc. The final product which will be comprised of some sort of metal will make this sort of failure unlikely.
As I feared, a few weeks into the testing of my keychain the clip broke off. Thankfully my keys were in my pocket at the time so I did not lose them, but regardless it did warrant further inquiry into the design of the clip.
As I feared, a few weeks into the testing of my keychain the clip broke off. Thankfully my keys were in my pocket at the time so I did not lose them, but regardless it did warrant further inquiry into the design of the clip.
As I feared, a few weeks into the testing of my keychain the clip broke off. Thankfully my keys were in my pocket at the time so I did not lose them, but regardless it did warrant further inquiry into the design of the clip.
Final Concept - Note that the bottle opener geometry has been altered to ensure durability and pant clip geometry has been altered to be concentric with the body recess.
The final render as seen above features many changes. The most noticeable of which is the geometry of the pant clip. It is now redesigned to have a concentric contour to match the recess in the main body. Another alteration that was made to the pant clip is the length of the clip was shortened, and the space between the far right side of the keychain and the cutout for the clip was increased. This will help ensure that the clip does not break while being used.
Another alteration made was to the geometry of the bottle opener. It is not a slightly larger and more durable geometry that should help increase the life of the opener while still maintaining clean lines.
