D4E1 - Coffee Cup Carrier

As part of the Postgraduate education Makerskills for Occupational Therapists at Howest University College, Kortrijk (Belgium) the Coffee cup Carrier has been developed for and together with K, a young woman with Cerebral Palsy.

This condition not only impacts K’s strength and proprioception of the upper left limb, it also impacts her balance and gait. Consequently, when K likes to grab a cup of coffee, she tends to spill coffee especially when stairs are involved. When walking up or down the stairs, K needs her right hand to hold on to the banister which forces her to carry the coffee cup in the left hand. Due to the tremor of the left hand and the diminished proprioception, she is bound to spill coffee. To avoid handburn or sliding over the spilt coffee, she needs to ask others to carry her coffee cup. However, as a strong an independent young woman, she would like to carry her coffee cup herself. That is why we created this Coffee cup Carrier inspired on the Spillnot designs of Steve.Dickie and Dave88 found on Thingiverse.

To meet K's demand for portability, the Coffee cup Carrrier is composed out of two parts in 3D print: a platform to put the drink on and an upright handle with ribbon to carry the whole. Both parts are held together by a screw with nut. As the working of the Spillnot breaks when you would coincidently bump into an obstacle, for example a wall or a banister, we introduced a non-skid layer on the platform and a velcro to tie the cup or glass to the handle. The non-skid prevents the cup from sliding over the platform and the velcro secures the carrier that the glass or cup won’t fall off.

It is a simple design which easily can be made by anyone with access to a 3D printer and this building plan. Have fun with it and feel free to adjust elements according to your own situation.

Supplies

Fusion 360, open-source Autodesk program
3D printer with PLA filament and its slicer (Ultimaker 2+ and Cura have been used here)
Pair of scissors
Sharp knife and green cutting mat
Ruler
Velcro:
2,5 x 40 cm sewing velcro loop and
2,5 x 15 sticky velcro hook
Ribbon 3 x 25 cm, we used leather look in function of solidity
Screw and nut: 5M x 50mm
Screwdriver fitting to the screw
Metal button as used for a jeans
1 sheet of Neoprene, a synthetic rubber, in a color of choice. Kalina chose green or blue.

3D Print Components

Print the enclosed .stl files.

The Coffee cup Carrier exists out of two components: a platform and a handle. The components have been sliced with Ultimaker Cura software and I have printed my copies with an Ultimaker 2+ 3D printer. I’ve printed both parts with following settings:

Layer height: 02 mm
Infill density: 15%
Print speed: 60 mm/s
Build Plate Adhesion: skirt

To 3D print, I’ve positioned the components as shown on the pictures.

Downloads

CoffeeCupCarrier_Handle.stl

CoffeeCupCarrier_Platform.stl

Clean the Printed Components

Ones the parts have been 3D printed, remove the brim from the components. Clean up the edges with a sharp knife to remove all left over parts of the skirt or brim.

The Ribbon

Cut the ribbon at a length of 25 cm. Decide on the position of the button and mark that point on the ribbon. I’ve opted to put it at about 1,5 cm of the ribbon edges.

Put the ribbon through the ribbon conductor of the handle and close the loop by hammering the button through the ribbon edges as shown on the button packaging.

The Velcro

Cut 4 x a piece of 3,5 cm of the sticky velcro hook. Stick a velcro hook on each of the 3 velcro conductors of the handle.

Cut a 40 cm piece of sewing velcro loop. Attach 1 side to one of the velcro hooks placed in one of the conductors. Stick the last piece of the velcro hook on the back side of the part of the velcro loop which is stuck on the velcro hook of a conductor (see images below)

Screw the Components Together

Slide the handle in the holder of the platform and tie both components together with the screw and nut.

Cut the Neoprene to Use As a Non-skid

Draw a circle of 11 cm in the sheet Neoprene. I started by drawing a circle of 11 cm on a piece of paper and cut it out so I could use it as a pattern. If you prefer, you could also draw a circle directly on the Neoprene. Cut the circle out with a pair of scissors.

Put the Neoprene circle on the platform.

The End Result

Sources

As I’m a novice in Fusion 360, I needed a lot of help to bring this process to an end. Following video’s helped and inspired: