One of my first projects at Progressive was this hand crank juicer. It sits in a small space between manual push down and twist type juicers, and electric versions. It’s compact but easy to use and includes a filtering top to catch seeds and pulp, little sweeper arms on the reamer that prevent the filter from clogging, and a large container with measurement markings and a spout that works even with the item assembled.
I supported this project which was led by an industrial designer. My main contributions were design of the gearing, design of the snap feature between the reamer and the top, and overall geometry. I also contributed my highly regarded hand modeling skills to one of the photos below.
The most difficult part of this item to get right was preventing the item from spinning. Early prototypes would frustratingly move around in-use. The reason is the torque from the crank handle about the reamer’s axis and the reaction torque from the fruit will definitely align at one part of the crank’s cycle. When they are aligned the main thing preventing rotation is the torque of the rubber foot in the container’s base.
The larger bell shaped container is cute but it has a function too. The wider base was critical to fixing the rotation issue. Simply making the container wider but keeping it one part would interfere with the handle. to compensate the crank’s shaft could be made longer but that would cancel out the anti-twisting benefits of the wider base. The other option would have been to reduce the fruit torque somehow with less sharp flutes or reduce the forces on the crank, with a larger gearing ratio, which would also effectively slow down the juicing action too.