Design for Assembly (DFA) of Hand Trolley

Abstract

The use of hand trolleys plays an important role in all construction and manufacturing industries. Hand trolleys are designed and manufactured according to various governing features like load-capacity, materials, and ergonomic design. The fundamental objective of a hand trolley is to provide a hassle-free mode of transporting heavy objects from one location to another. It is a well-known fact that the demand for consumer products increases day by day and the technological advancements and development in the industries contribute to the increase in the demand for products in the market. To meet this demand, production facilities must be expanded and the speed of manufacturing and assembly must be increased. The hand trolleys that exist today are not optimized for assembly. Therefore, the assembly times are huge and this drives up the cost of production drastically. Design For Assembly (DFA) evaluation is an accurate and systematic methodology to evaluate how well a product is designed for assembly. Each component must be conceptualized and designed in such a way that it aligns and mates efficiently and easily. This includes the design and processing of the component in a specific manner with respect to shape, size, tolerances, and surface finish. A hand trolley often is an assembly of several individual parts. Every individual part has to be planned, designed, and manufactured separately. Hence, when individual components are designed and manufactured with ease of assembly in mind, the result is a significant reduction in assembly time. This results in savings of resources and capital.