DESIGN AND PRODUCTION OF ASHTRAYS

Writer：Carlos   Role：Design Director

An American customer requested that we design an ashtray for the American market. Firstly, in order to better understand the requirements, we had face to face meetings with the customer. They stipulated that;

1：The product should be usable in a wide range of applications.

2：The product design should be concise.

3：The product should have rich colors.

4：The product should have a nice texture.

Regarding material:

Firstly, we conducted the research on ashtrays in the market. Most ashtrays are produced with non-stainless steel, glass, or plastic. We excluded non-stainless steel and plastic as the piece needed to have a single color, so these materials would not meet the requirement. We had to select a type of material meeting all requirements. After researching, we decided to use aluminum alloy, because it could meet the color requirement with spray painting. Spray painting also gives two options, bright and matte, enriching the surface effect of the product. After confirming the materials, we communicated with the customer as soon as possible and received their approval, so we started our design.

Regarding design:

After confirming the material,we designed 3 different shapes. The first type is a square ashtray, suitable for small office desks and living rooms. The second type is rectangular, suitable for large conference rooms. The third type is circular, suitable for personal desks and reception rooms. As the main market is in Europe and America, we also designed cigarette and cigar slots on the ashtray, which is highly appreciated by the customer. Below are some drawing sheets we designed for customers.

The main inspiration for the design of the square ashtray was the main aquatics center for the Beijing Olympics, The Water Cube. This series has two design programs. The first product features a split design, consisting of an upper cover and a lower cover. The whole product is made of aluminum alloy with four anti-slip pads under it adhered with 3M adhesive. The whole weight of the product is 1.5KG.

The second type adopted an integrated design, the main material is aluminum and the bottom lid is ABS material. There are four anti-slip pads. The bottom lids and main body are connected with four M4 screws. The four anti-slip mats adhere with the bottom lid. The whole weight of the product is around 1.1 KG.  

We can see that the design of the third type of product is simple and artistic. The inspiration for the design was also taken from the main studio of the Beijing Olympic Games. The product is for small living rooms and personal office areas. The installation method is consistent with the second product, which is also connected with screws, and the anti-slip mats are underneath, not only to avoid slippage but also to hide the screws.

Below is the second product and the third product design drawing sheet. From the picture, we can see that the installation method is very simple. They are respectively the main body, made of aluminum alloy and formed by die-casting. Bottom cover is made of ABS material, injection molded with 4 M4 screws. The bottom of the screws is a non-slip pad with 3M adhesive, which is die cut.

Applied processes: Die casting, injection molding, die-cutting process

Post processing applied: polishing, painting

Material used: ADC12 ABS

We selected the first product to do a 3D printing and sent the sample to customer with a matte paint finish. In terms of color, we decided the black and red matching method. Visual impairment can better reflect the delicacy of the product’s paint.

Grefee has various types and sizes of 3D printing equipment, so we can complete the 3D printing of this product set in one day, and complete the painting and drying processes within 3 days to send samples to customers.

Ashtray main body process:

The main body weighs about 1.1KG, and all the mold steel is made of imported 8407 material from ASSAB in Sweden. After hardening, the hardness can reach HRC50-52 degrees. Compared with othenr hard materials, 8407 has better toughness and better steel can ensure the service life of the mold. The surface of the ashtray is the key to the entire product, and a small sand hole can destroy the entire product. Therefore, we chose a 300 ton die-casting machine as the production equipment. Larger equipment has a larger injection volume and better final pressure retention, which can effectively reduce the sand holes on the surface of the molded product.

The main body process in quite complex. We firstly need to fix the semi-produced product onto the clamps, then used the machine to remove the injection gate and slag ladles before sending the semi-produced product to the CNC machining workshop, to perform CNC machining on the six sides of the product. After the CNC process is completed, manual polishing and grinding of the product surface will be required to prepare for subsequent painting. The QC team overlooks each stage to ensure the quality of each product

Production of bottom lid:

The plastic part is at the bottom of the ashtray, and there is no apparent function in the whole series. However, we still stick to the principle that quality comes first during mold manufacturing and production. As the main body is matte, we need to dry the front mold side. The core is polished to grade SPI-B2. The texture will be better after drying and it also ensures the matte effect on the bottom lid after spray painting is the same as that of main body.

Pre-spray painting：

We do pre-spray painting for our products and deliver the samples to get the confirmation from the customer before we start batch production. The square ashtray comes in 6 colors and the circular ashtrays have 13 colors in total. Below are the spray painted samples we sent to the customer before the batch production.

Spray painting production:

Because the central part of the product is concave and all six sides of the product need to be painted, the painting process may cause oil accumulation in the concave area of the product center, especially in the logo area at the center. When defects appear in manual spray painting, our automatic spray-painting production line can demonstrate its value. It can effectively ensure that the paint thickness on the surface of the product is consistent, and where the shape of the product is inconsistent. We can also use multiple nozzles to spray at the same time to avoid uneven spray painting

The anti-slip pad is processed as a whole board and made of high-temperature resistant rubber. The bottom of the anti-slip pad is uniformly coated with 3M adhesive, which can help it better adhere to the bottom cover due to the sun drying pattern on the surface of the bottom lid. We imitated the usage environment and conducted a drop test on the assembled product from a desk with a height of 1.2 meters. 3M adhesive can adhere well to the bottom without falling off.

Testing：

We need to do a fire resistance and grid test on the surface paint for the usage environment of ashtrays, so the painting we selected is important as it must be fire-proof and have excellent adherence. After the painting is completed, we tested according to the ISO1514 standards. The test tool is a 1mm blade, and then a hundred grid test is conducted on the entire painted surface of the product with a test spacing of 70mm according to the size of the product. After testing, only the head position of the painted surface has slight peeling.

Details:

At the same time that the customer acknowledged our design, we completed the design of the transport box according to different sizes of products. The products with completed spray painting process, we all adopted vacuum formed boxes to transport finished products from the painting workshop to the packaging workshop, which can effectively avoid surface damage during the transportation process.

Product packaging：

The entire packaging process is divided into 5 steps;

1) Install the bottom screws

2) Install anti slip pads at the bottom of screws

3) External surface cleaning

4) QC conducts full inspection

5) : Packaging into boxes

We require all staff to wear finger cots or white gloves during the packaging process to avoid scratching the surface paint of the product with nails. We require all products to undergo final cleaning and testing during packaging.

We customized appropriate packaging according to the product features. Firstly, the ashtrays weigh over 1kg. We used hard white board to be the cover which can prevent the products inside from damaging. According to the shapes of the products, we used EVA foam to protect the product from each direction. The surface of the product is tiled with 4T black soft foam, which not only protects the front of the product, but also adds a sense of mystery to the product.

With the hard work of our engineering team and production team, the product we designed for the customer has been a bestselling product. Now, we are in discussions to design and produce in other shapes. GREFEE is not only a production company, to be precise, we are an engineering orientated production company, just like a machine with its own brain.