OYA Fire-Pit
As a team, we were tasked with designing, engineering and manufacturing a vortex generating fire-pit that emulates a fire tornado. Each of the four members, tasked with specific aspects of the project.
As the design engineer I was tasked with 3D-modeling, rendering, website development, videography and graphic design of the project. The design consists entirely of 304 stainless steel and utilizes upcycled stainless-steel kegs as the inner wall. Fresh air enters through the lower intakes and heats up within the insulated walls, it then exits through two sets of vortex generating fins to create the tornado effect. This effect allows for a quicker lighting, faster burning and smokeless fire. The unique shape of the top flange gives the user a place to lift the fire-pit and became the layout for the OYA logo.
Team OYA constructed five function prototypes to test various aspects of the fire pit and to perfect the vortex effect. After running into issues with paint adhesion, we decided to switch to 304 stainless steel. Although this material was much more expensive and difficult to work with, we felt it made for a much higher quality product. For the final production run, we engineered various jigs and fixtures to ensure tolerances remained within our quality specifications. A detailed Gantt Chart kept the team on track, along with accounting and inventory management.
A total of eight stainless steel OYA fire-pits were constructed and sold. Each finished with a personalized plaque and finish specific to the customer via the custom configurator on the website. In total, team OYA invested over 1000 hours of work to bring this project to life. This was only possible with great team chemistry, careful planning and four ambitious designers who refused to settle for anything less than a remarkable product.
