Yes, Nancy, my kids are the same way. After three years, the product has so many new features, the old product has little value. Pretty clever of the electronics industry to create early obsolescence.
cvandewater, I'm sure that toaster designs could vary, but also note that Dangela's comment below described fixing the toaster "to hold the bread down so it would toast", implying that more than just triggering is required.
Robert, I just had to comment. I read your first paragraph and I just had to laugh. It was great. I was visualizing you tilting the toaster to get it to work. My wife would have been telling me to get rid of the thing (and she's and engineer).
Interesting, Jhankwitz. I wonder how many engineers are now in the position to focus 100% on component longevirty. Maybe a few in defense, aerospace, and medical devices. Maybe some in Detroit as well.
Those were indeed the good old days. My kids just can't understand why I get aggravated when an electronic product or an appliance doesn't last longer than three years - they have grown up in a disposable society and its hard for them to comprehend something built with longevity in mind - anything older than three years is "old" to them and should be replaced anyway...
Thanks for your good work! I use a Sunbeam Radiant Toaster, a CoffeeMaster vacuum coffee maker, an Oster Snowflake ice crusher and a blender of a similar age. I know people who regularly use Mixmasters.
I push these thrift store finds on my friends who are amazed that at one time appliances were made to be serviced and last several lifetimes. The quality of the industrial design still impresses me. Anyone who considers classic cars worth collecting should also look into classic appliances.
You might look at the "automatic beyond belief" or the other vintage appliance websites. A real engineer from the Chicago Flexible Shaft Company would be valued source of information.
Ah, the years have been far kinder to those products than to my memory. I don't recall any maintenance instructions included with any products other than the routine oiling of professional hair clipper bearings. Truth is, my focus was 100% on component longevity, not product manuals. Those were created by other Engineering teams and graphic artists.
So, the question of the day, Jhankwitz, is whether the Sunbeam was sold with a manual that explained the adjustment screw at the bottom of the toaster. I can understand Robert not having the instructions, since he bought the toaster as a resale shop. But what about new owners? Did Sunbeam alert them?
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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