Spanish maker Ivan Miranda has managed to find a high-tech replacement for outdated umbrellas: a turbocharged design using advanced 3D printing technology completely frees the hands and redirects the flow of downward moisture to neighboring pedestrians.
It turns out that even in sunny San Sebastian (where Ivan resides), it’s not always too sunny. And it often rains. There are two options here: either take the umbrella or sit at home. Ivan came up with an alternative worthy of Friday night toast – a headgear with a built-in impeller that blows annoying droplets away from the wearer.
The first version of the device used a 3D printed impeller but failed bench tests due to imbalance. With the second version, Ivan didn’t play around and built a factory-made impeller with a more powerful motor into the 3D printed body, but even here there was a hitch: the pressure of the outgoing flow was too low due to the large nozzle area. As a result of a comprehensive hydro gas dynamic analysis, Ivan came to conclusion that it was necessary to reduce the gap between the upper and lower parts of the design, which made it possible to produce the third iteration, this time a successful one.
A crank of this size can be printed on a large-size 3D printer, such as the Raise3D Pro3 Plus.
Let’s hope the demonstration video will be followed by field tests: we would like to see the turbo umbrella work in crowded places and under other atmospheric conditions – snow, hail.
This is how it is done:
