Ballpoint Pen DFMEA

“gRrrrrr. One of my assignments in my new job is to create a good DFMEA for a typical ball point pen... the thought being that it will be a good mental exercise so that as I get future applications, I have exercized my mind, and can use the same thought processes to create future DFMEA's.

Grrrr.. I have a headache.”

“If anyone has a good DFMEA on a ball point pen please forward to me.. :)”

“All right I have to ask. What does DFMEA stand for?”

“Dumb F#%>ing Mental Exercice Angst?”

“Design Failure Mode and Effect Analysis”

“Run it through the laundry with your wife's clothes. That'll do the job, if not shorten your lifespan.”

“I've met some dumb engineers.”

“heh.. already got that one ST.. that's a exercise VERY similar to what I am doing.. but you will notice there are not any answers.. it's only the teaching plan.”

“Think they are using that very plan to see what your response is?”

“I've been working on it for two days already.. It's actually a very complicated problem.. even though it is supposedly a good mental exercise for junior high kids.”

“I have about a 100 DFMEA's on telecom equipment. Not sure how well it will translate to a Ball Point Pen.”

“If it fails, just go to Dollar General, Target, Walmart or elsewhere and buy some PaperMates. Give one to everyone at work and to your friends. Be popular.”

“

Like I said, it's fairly involved...”

“I'm trying to remember the metal used for the clip on the Sterling silver Parker fountain pen I have. The blurb used to say the pen was made from four precious metals: silver (barrel and cap), gold (nib) and two others one for the clip. They said it was the most fatigue resistant metal on earth.

GOT IT!!! Berrylium copper.

Does that help?

Doug”

“This thread caught my eye!

I just had my Reliability Concepts and Techniques class do this in teams. Divided them into three teams do a DFMEA for a smoke detector, Apex II backpacking stove, and hearing aids. I didn't make them do a complete DFMEA, only for a few failure modes.

The main thing I was going for was to get them to understand the mechanics and what the Risk Priority Number (RPN) means.”

“Phil: That's the easy part. The toughest is understanding the intended function of the design, and how that intended function can fail.

;)”

“Towndawg - Yes. It was not as easy as they thought. They didn't have near enough time to do a good job. I think they just did enough to appreciate the concept.”