DEVELOPMENT OF A TRANSFORMABLE FURNITURE SYSTEM: FROM SHELVING UNIT TO FUNCTIONAL TABLETOP

• AWOPETU, O. O

  Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

• OWOYEMI, J. M

  Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

• BABATUNDE, T. P.

  Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

• OJO, O. T.

  Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

The standard dimension of building in the major cities and university environment has been compromised in order to take advantage of the steady increase in the population rate leading to high demand for housing in the city and university environment. The increasing desire for accommodation and the high cost of land have led to the appearance of small apartments that do not meet all uses. The circumstances of the small dimensional apartments create an opportunity for the development of transformable space-saving furniture that uses less space and provides dual functions. Based on the concept that the design must serve at least two forms of appearances and functions brings about the design of transformable book shelves to the table with a view to maximizing utility spaces in the student hostels. In this research, total available space ( ) and useable space area  together with their percentages were determined from FUTA, EKSU, AFUED, and FPA students’ hostels. Data obtained were analyzed for the useable space and average percentage of the hostels’ available space. After a critical study of the useable area across the four institutions, it was deduced that the minimum useable area of 0.83x10⁶ mm² was suitable for the design of a transformable shelve-to-table that works with the hostels of the institutions. Also, the ergonomic and anthropometric measurements of 80 students’ height across the four institutions were computed for the 5^th,15^th, 25^th, 50^th, 75^th, and 95^th percentile, for the design of the platform/layer involved. The maximum and minimum positioning of the step boards were adopted for 75 percentile and 15 percentile which is equivalent to 1240 mm and 248 mm because of the limited usable space attained from the four selected institution student’s hostels. This design model was done using AutoCAD software and static simulation was carried out using the Solidworks 2021 Simulation CAD software for stress analysis to verify the amount of load that could be supported by developing a prototype without failure in both shelve and table.  Fabrication of transformable furniture was done using higher density fiberboard (HDF) of its full size . A pair of gas spring mechanisms were used to maintain its alignment positioning, stability, safely lifting, and counterbalancing weights in both shelve and table. The effectiveness of the research was justified by maintaining the horizontal platform in both shelve and table appearance to sustain any objects placed on any of its platforms/layers during the transformation without displacement from their original position.

Keywords: transformable, ergonomic, anthropometric, design, fabrication, furniture

1. AWOPETU, O. O, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

   Mechanical Engineering Department

2. OWOYEMI, J. M, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

   Mechanical Engineering Department

3. BABATUNDE, T. P. , Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

          Mechanical Engineering Department

4. OJO, O. T., Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

   Mechanical Engineering Department, The Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria

• pdf

Copyright (c) 2024 FUTA JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND ENGINEERING TECHNOLOGY

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright

With the submission of a manuscript, the corresponding author confirms that the manuscript is not under consideration by another journal. With the acceptance of a manuscript, the Journal reserves the exclusive right of publication and dissemination of the information contained in the article. The veracity of the paper and all the claims therein is solely the opinion of the authors not the journal.