The last several decades have seen a very definite trend in living spaces. While real estate and rental prices have predominantly followed an upward trend, earnings for most people have not followed suit. This is especially prevalent in younger populations, with Gen X-ers and Millenials having to make due with less living space than the generations that preceded them, either by living in apartments instead of homes, living in smaller apartments than their predecessors, or just having to remain living with their parents. With a fairly established challenge, and a potential market to address it, the idea behind this project was to explore some way to make furniture that could serve multiple roles without taking up additional space. 

Transformable furniture is not a new concept, with products such as sleeper sofas already inhabiting an established space in the market. Still, with this project, we decided to explore design that might offer a novel approach to the idea, developing a concept that would uphold high standards of aesthetics in all states combined with a transformation process that, by serving as a demonstration of complex planar machinery design, might serve to enhance the piece's appeal.

The ideation process for this concept underwent multiple iterations. The first step was to select what pieces of furniture the concept would transform between.  As a first state, a coffee table was selected because of it's status as an integral, functional piece of any modern living room. As a second state, a lounge chair was selected due to its status as a staple of most living room furnishings, as well as the ease with which, from a design perspective, the same basic mechanism could be employed for other form of furniture, including a couch or loveseat.

 For the ideation phase, it was my task to design a linkage mechanism that would achieve this transformation efficiently and reliably while maintaining high aesthetic standards.  I began by creating kinematic diagrams, eventually ending up with a mechanism comprised of three 4-bar linkages connected together. The final design consisted of a single input crank motion of 170 degrees that, by strict control over all joints, links, and degrees of freedom in the system, resulted in path defined motion of over twenty links.  

I then used the kinematic diagrams to develop a high fidelity 3D model of the entire assembly.  This model was used to conduct full motion and FEA stress analyses, and in addition served to create the templates for future automated machining processes. Special care was taken during the design process to ensure the most precise and efficient manufacturing techniques could be employed. 

Linkage components were cut out of aluminum using a water jet. The frame was made of wood, and the initial design called for it to be cut from thin panels using a laser cutter.  The pieces would be dovetailed at all edges, and designed to made in such a way that would maximize strength and rigidity while minimizing weight.

Unfortunately, unforeseen material delays necessitated a change in plans, forcing the team to resort to traditional wood framing techniques, a process which resulted more time consuming and less accurate with tolerances that could not match those the laser cutter would have yielded.

In addition, the initial design had called for a modular, detachable electric motor set-up to allow for either hand crank or automatic operation of the transformation process. Unfortunately, the wood manufacturing delay resulted in only the manual crank option being completed.

The final result was a full size, usable furniture concept. While it functioned, it did not include all the features and levels of fit and finish that the team had initially desired. Future development could easily achieve the full aesthetic standards sought from the outset of this project.

The primary lesson learned from this project was the importance of good project management and careful timetable planning. Many design decisions made to both improve the concept as well as streamline manufacturing were nullified by material delays. A better look at the project's critical path and planning for float and buffers might have aided the team in avoiding issues.