Instrumental Music Stand
Description
Oftentimes, those who play instruments must carry around their musical instruments and their respective musical stands when traveling and performing. One’s musical stand and requirement to turn the pages on their musical sheet notes mid - performance serve as a nuisance. Given we are in the age of technology, where everyone is capable of accessing the large amounts of information stored on the internet within their smartphones, large sheet music is no longer necessary and primitive. Rather, millions of songs and their respective notes can be stored on our phones, serving as an extreme convenience for all musicians. Our group proposes the following product: a universal phone stand that may be mounted onto any instrument, associated with an app containing millions of songs (and notes) for all instruments, capable of different scrolling speeds and options. Our product will appeal to those who play instruments, providing hands-free convenience and reduces the hassle of reading sheet music from your phone.
Concept Selection
Pugh Analysis
The image shows a pugh analysis chart. This was used to narrow down the team concepts to 3.
Prototype
CAD Design
The final concept was then produced in SolidWorks as an assembly. The key features included in our final design include: telescoping arm, adjustable angle up to 180 degrees, adjustable arms to hold any size phone, a ball and socket to angle the phone, and an interchangeable base.
The phone holder part has a back that is about the size of an iPhone SE. The extendable arms on each side can lock into multiple positions due to about two dozen teeth on the back. A button on the side of the phone stand releases the teeth from locking allowing the arms to move outward, but pushing on the arms inward locks them into whatever position they are left at. The interchangeable base has a sliding, click-in mechanism so the user can switch out the suction cup and C-clamp and other future attachments.
The telescoping arm tapers off at the further end and is held at its position by friction. It can rotate with a greater than 180 degree of motion and is locked in by a thumb screw on the base. The ball and socket joint has a very tight tolerance and also locks into its position using friction, though if that fails to work in actual physical prototypes, we plan to add a thumbscrew to tighten it like with the telescoping arm.
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FEA Analysis
Parameters:
A force of 0.5 lbf applied to the phone housing where the phone will be placed.
Entire product is set to ABS.
The base is fixed
Analysis shows total deformation. The color scale shows the maximum displacement throughout the part. Since the maximum displacement of the phone holder itself is in red, that component will experience a displacement of 0.0787 in, which is close to 0. Thus, these results show that the product will be able to hold a standard phone.
It is important to note that these results are from a static analysis, not dynamic. In future analysis we must account for the stress and displacement of the prototype using dynamic analysis because that is a more practical situation. As the user is playing, it is likely that the user will be moving while playing the instrument. Although the movements may not be sudden or of large magnitude, this situation must still be considered in the future.
Business Model
We organized and explained how our product will not only be successful but how it will maintain and thrive in the market we put it in.
IÂ explained how we will maintain our positive view of our business to the public and retain relationships with our customers, key partners, stakeholders, etc. The product would be sold with an accompanying music app that stores all sheet music and scrolls through the sheet music hands free.Â
Secondary revenue streams included selling interchangeable parts of the stand individually. This includes the different clamping mechanisms and parts of the music stand that can be customized (example: different colors/designs of the telescoping arm).
Another revenue stream will be through maintenance of the product and adding specialized parts.