Thanks for the replies everyone!
Sam, I ran a quick sketch of the “V” form. I still think the original is a bit more crisp, but I’d like to hear what you think!
iab, thanks for the bleed suggestion! I photoshopped a version of it, and really like the effect at the top, but am having trouble with the bottom. Some framing is covered by shell just below the lift arm, and if I were to have it project on that bit as well, it would appear to “jog” from most angles. I left it off of that part, and I think it ruins some of the bleed effect on that end… Do you have any suggestions of a way to get around that?
Traftos, it’s funny you mention an attachment to Zamboni in particular, but Olympia as well. While researching how their systems worked it became painfully obvious that the design hasn’t really changed in 70 years, the machines have worked, so any improvements are basically tacked on to the existing mechanisms. When we interviewed the coordinator for our universities ice maintenance, she mentioned that a lot of the things we were confused about in the design were pain points for her in everyday operation.
For example, just changing the blade is actually a really dangerous process that people lose fingers to, so we overhauled the blade changing system entirely, adding a quick release to it, and having the entire system lift off of the ground so it’s more accessible.
In fact, a lot of our presentation revolved around the stagnation in the industry and the need for some added competition
Brett, I like the idea of integrating the tubes a bit more. They do have to be mechanically separated unfortunately in order to allow them to flex when the scraping unit lifts up, but maybe I could encase the whole assembly somehow. I’m going to put some thought into it!
I’m also considering doing something with the lift arms as well, but they were really complicated to get the geometry right to get enough cylinder travel for lift, and take the force from the blade properly. I didn’t worry about it before now because I kind of liked the industrial feel up front, vs the clean main body, like tusks themselves in a way. What do you think?